With little fanfare, Elena Kagan was sworn in as the newest Supreme Court Justice on August 7th. Her Senate confirmation hearing seemed more of a formality than typical recent confirmations which scrutinized legal and moral philosophies. Kagan was the first female Solicitor General, and will be only the fourth woman to sit on the country’s [...]
A proposed Federal bill would include home health aides, nurses’ aides, and babysitters under federal minimum wage and overtime laws. In-home direct care workers who work 20 or more hours per week would be covered under this new law. Currently, babysitters and companions working on a “casual basis” are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards [...]
On July 30, a new statute was signed into law in Illinois amending the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act. It allows employees to take allegations of wage payment violations directly to state circuit courts, and increases the ability of employees to file class action suits. Such employees can be awarded costs and attorneys fees [...]
As published in the April 26, 2010 Connecticut Law Tribune. The new federal health-care bill will require employers to make a major decision: should they provide employees with “sufficient” healthcare coverage, or should they just pay the penalties? The decision will require a serious cost-benefit analysis. The bill, called the Health Care Reconciliation Act of [...]
On April 15, 2010, President Obama signed the Continuing Extension Act of 2010, extending eligibility for unemployment and COBRA benefits which were previously extended by the Temporary Extension Act of 2010. With regard to COBRA, the bill extended the eligibility deadline for the COBRA subsidy from March 31st to May 31st. This subsidy allows workers [...]