CAUTION! WATCH OUT FOR THESE WAGE-AND-HOUR PITFALLS
The U.S. Department of Labor has been cracking down on wage and hour infractions, and it may be time to review your overtime procedures and policies–it is all too easy to violate wage and hour regulations unwittingly.
Sometimes DOL complaints seem trivial. We lawyers have a saying–the “de minims” rule, which says “some things are too trivial to merit consideration.”
How We Operate Our Business is Changing
The technological revolution that has enveloped our society has made technology an important part of our lives. The use of computers and information technology has become an integral part of business, and it is doubtful there will ever be a return to traditional methods of conducting business. The efficiency to conduct business, to provide products and services at a faster, more efficient rate, has radically changed how we do business. Effective use of technology can be helpful to every business, large and small.
This trend towards increased use of technology will not diminish and will only increase. Technology is affecting the way you work and where you work. With the rise of mobile and cloud computing, business owners can work and manage their businesses from anywhere. For example, 50% of workers check email on the weekends and 34% check email while on vacation? The good news is that technology has increased our productivity by over 400% since 1950.
The new drone toy you got for Christmas comes with some heavy federal issues.
When the Federal Aviation Administration established guidelines and licensing procedures for how commercial businesses and operators were permitted to use drones two years ago, the technology’s user base was mostly comprised of two groups: first responders, and photographers and other media types.
The guidelines and procedures laid down sufficed at the time for the purposes of those users; however, during the past two years, drones have become significantly more common in a wider array of industries like agriculture, utility maintenance and professional sports – not to mention the recreational users.
What are the local sick leave laws that could affect local businesses?
3 New Sick Leave Laws could affect your business.
Blockchain and Chicago Businesses
In September of 2015, the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software and Society’s World Economic Forum[1] predicted that by 2025, 10% of GDP will be stored on blockchains or blockchain related technology. If you are a Chicago business owner and you are unsure what that means or how it might affect your company, you want to speak to a Chicago business attorney as soon as possible to learn all that you can about this rapidly growing technology.
What Is Blockchain Technology?
Equity Crowdfunding – The Future of Investing?
While nearly everyone has heard of crowdfunding, the concept of equity crowdfunding is not as well known. For those Chicago business owners that are new to this developing area, prior to May 2016, crowdfunding was available only to accredited investors or those with an annual income of at least $200,000 or a net worth of more than 1 million, not including the value of a primary residence. Although the 2012 federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act[1] (JOBS) provided for non-accredited investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not authorize equity crowdfunding to begin until May 2016.
Since that time, Article III of the JOBS Act has seen 49 successful offerings with 11.5 million dollars committed according to a November 17, 2016, Forbes report[2] on the state of equity crowdfunding. While the report suggests that the large majority of startups are not yet using non-accredited crowdfunding under Title III, it is anticipated that equity investment platforms will see tremendous growth moving forward.
Luddites and technophobes have no place in the modern practice of law, as least not according to recent changes in the rules of professional conduct. Technology has found embedded itself into the practice of law.
Technology advances are constantly changing the way we practice just as technology is changing our lives in so many other ways. One law firm recently brought a new associate into the firm and its name is ROSS, the artificial intelligence that does research to help with its research issues. E-filing is being adopted in every court system. E-discovery is changing the litigation paradigm. Cybersecurity has become a concern of every law firm. And Legal Zoom is dominating the legal services marketplace.
In looking to the future, we must think exponentially. The law of accelerating returns is bringing more advanced changes and technologies sooner than we can anticipate. Lawyers can no longer afford to be sluggish in learning and using these new technologies.
Dentists face new problems with overtime for their employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act[1] (FLSA) sets forth standards for both minimum wages and overtime pay as well as record keeping for businesses. Whether your dental practice consists of two employees or a hundred employees spread across three office locations, federal law requires that all dental offices comply with FLSA overtime regulations by December 1, 2016.
Exempt Versus Non-Exempt Employees
In order to determine if you are in compliance with FLSA regulations, the first step is to review which employees are designated as exempt, and not owed overtime wages, versus non-exempt. FLSA rules establish three types of exempt employees[2] which are defined by an individual’s employment description rather than their job title including:
It seems that every other news story involves Hillary Clinton,[1] emails, and the use of private servers, putting the topic of email deletion at center stage. But what can a Chicago business owner learn from the Hillary Clinton email story?
There was a time when owning a business did not include words such as hard drives, flash drives, magnetic tapes and USB ports. Now, every company has a fleet of computers, a server, and a complex back-up system. Most businesses even have a least one IT expert on staff. Computers have replaced typewriters, emails have replaced snail mail, and hard drives have all but replaced filing cabinets filled with documents.
When it comes to email communications, the use of cell phones and laptops has made them commonplace in and out of the business world. It is almost expected that a business owner will send and receive emails over lunch, on-the-go, and over the course of the weekend. For more than a decade, business owners have been warned regarding the pitfalls and dangers of electronic communications. While those earliest concerns centered around the receipt of spam and the use of secure e-mail accounts[2] to preserve secret corporate information, the retention and deletion of e-mails was also discussed.
The Democratic National Committee is not the only victim of computer hacking[1]. In June of 2016, Bloomberg[2] reported on black market access to 70,000 hacked corporate and business servers. Even LinkedIn was victimized by computer hackers[3] who obtained 117 million passwords.
To further complicate things, these types of cyber attacks oftentimes have a global connection. On September 28, 2016, one of the FBI’s former most wanted hackers[4] pleaded guilty to conspiring to receive extortion proceeds and illegally accessing computers. Peter Romar, who had been arrested in Germany and extradited to the United States, was a member of a hacking group known as the Syrian Electronic Army. The group hacked into the computer systems of The Washington Post, CNN, the Associated Press, Harvard University and many others, then threatened to cause damage or sell data unless the business paid a ransom.
Types of Ransomware
