On May 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced a final rule to provide one analysis for all employers when determining whether they qualify as “retail or service” establishments for purposes of an exemption from overtime pay applicable to commission-based employees.  Section 7(i) of the Fair Labor Standards Act […]

On May 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule that allows employers to pay bonuses or other incentive-based pay to salaried, nonexempt employees whose hours vary from week to week. The final rule clarifies that payments in addition to the fixed salary are compatible with the use of the fluctuating workweek […]

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued three new opinion letters that address compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  As a reminder to my readers, an opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances […]

Since so many people are still working from home, they don’t have the physical casual contact with each other that they used to have.  Familiarity with others is one of the ways trust is developed.  We know people – we like them – we have learned something personal about them during lunch or coffee.  Now […]

It’s so mixed up.  More and more employees are working from home.  Programs like Zoom are helping us connect and pressing zillions of buttons on our telephone actually gets us transferred to the “right” person who is working from their home. What would we do without technology! Plexiglass screens are on everyone’s desk, or station.  […]

Virtually every CEO or business owner knows how to read their company’s income statement – Revenue, then Gross Profit, then Operating Profit, then Net Profit. Many only look at the top and bottom numbers, some delve deeply into the details in between. But they all know that the bottom line doesn’t ever translate dollar-for-dollar into […]

Catchy title, eh? But it must be true, because so few small and mid-sized companies do it. Why would anyone who wants to build a successful company avoid doing something that might help them succeed? Well there are a lot of very solid reasons, or so we’re told. In fact, we’ve been told one or […]

A business writer once published an article that an exit plan can also be referred to as a succession plan. Sorry, folks, but that’s just not true. They’re very different strategies intended to accomplish very different objectives, and the actions that a business owner will take to implement a succession plan will be very different […]

Do you really have enough cash? Let me be more specific: Do you really have enough cash for the next horrific event in your industry? Hertz Corporation, a household name for decades to business travelers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year when the travel industry collapsed. They were already short of cash in an […]

Pick up any business newspaper today and someone will be opining on the interest rate yield curve. Is it going up, going down, reversing, inverting, or just resting quietly? You’re busy running a business that isn’t a bank, so what’s that all about? Why do you care? What should you do, if anything? This post […]