The Fair Labor Standards Act:
Worker Misclassification and Hours & Earnings Effects of Expanded Coverage
Jeffrey B. Wenger, RAND Corporation - Labor and Population Research
February 25, 2016
Live Webinar- Open To Our OCCABA Members: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
The Fair Labor Standards Act continues to be amended. The newest California regulations establish new minimum wage standards, and affect the minimum earnings standards to exclude administrative personnel as well as computer professionals. What is less understood is how well employers conform with the regulatory standards, and what the implications are for employers and policy setting.
The research presents a number of significant findings working from actual employee and employer survey data. The impact of the law is being felt in every area of benefit planning - plan design, cost controls, systems, and employee communications.
· Reported levels of misclassification for salaried workers
· Estimated levels of liability for overtime claims
· Projected reductions of work hours resulting from salaried reclassifications
· Demographic factors related to misclassifications
Jeffrey B. Wenger, is a Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation. His current research examines the effects of working conditions on remaining in the labor force, and the transitions of military personnel into civilian labor force. Dr. Wenger is also leading a project on long-term unemployment among late-career workers. From 2003 to 2015, he was an Assistant and then Associate Professor at the University of Georgia where he taught econometrics, statistics, economics, and policy evaluation. During this period, Dr. Wenger also served as a NIH/NIA Research Fellow in the Study of Aging at the Rand Corporation. He has published research on the asynchronicity of stock and labor market and effects on retirement savings, and Unemployment Insurance financing and rates.
Dr. Wenger recently received honors and awards from NIH/NIA Research Fellow in theStudy of Aging and twice recipient as Professor of the Year at the University of Georgia. He received his PhD in Public Policy Analysis at the University of North Carolina and Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics at University of California, Santa Cruz.
