Department of Labor Updates Two Required Posters

Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) updated two of its required employee postings. 

For the Fair Labor Standards Act poster (commonly called “minimum wage poster”), significant changes include the following: 

1. The poster includes new language from the federal health care law passed in 2009 that advises non-exempt nursing mothers of their right to be provided with a reasonable break time to express breast milk. It states that employers must provide a place that is not a bathroom, shielded from view, and free from intrusion by co-workers as well. 
2. Officials revised the poster to include mention of additional penalties for violations of the FLSA.
3. Lastly, there is mention that some employers are classifying workers incorrectly as independent contractors thus depriving actual non-exempt workers from their entitlement to minimum wage and overtime pay protection. Federal and state agencies, including the DOL, have been focused on this area as a source of missed tax revenue.

The second required employee posting, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act poster, contains very few changes. The most important is the deletion of a reference to $10,000 in the enforcement section of the poster. The bottom right side of the new poster notes “rev 07/16”.