Nanny Employers! Tougher Wage and Hour Enforcement Forecast

"The combination of an incoming administration more sympathetic to labor than its predecessor and the continuing economic crisis is likely to result in more aggressive wage and hour enforcement through both regulatory investigation and litigation" reports the Bureau of National Affairs.

Wage-Hour Litigation to Grow in 2009

Wage-Hour cases arise when an employee or former employee files a grievance related to the employer's payroll practices. In the "nanny world" or household employment, the most common wage-hour grievances surround compensation for the nanny's or housekeeper's overtime.

"There are many things we need to do," new Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said, including making sure that the money in the budget for DOL goes to the right places so that, among other things, the Wage and Hour division can enforce overtime provisions. It is expected that the Obama administration will provide greater funding for enforcement of Fair Labor Standards Act provisions.

Layoffs often spur more filings of wage and hour claims. The discharged nanny or housekeeper who seeks legal advice regarding their termination often hears that they have a potential wage and hour claim instead.

So how does the household employer protect himself from wage-hour claims?

HomeWork Solutions provides clients and visitors free online tools to help them properly craft an FLSA compliant written work agreement.

"Household workers are non-exempt under the FLSA" reports Kathleen Webb. "The written work agreement should always stipulate the household employee's compensation in hourly wage terms."

Employers are responsible for the maintenance of accurate, contemporaneous time sheets for their household workers. All live-out household workers, and some live-in nannies (depending on state law) are entitled to overtime compensation calculated as 1.5 times the hourly wage for hours worked in a week exceeding 40.