Articles Posted in attorney general

Last week, the First Circuit vacated an order of the Federal District Court that found against a Gordon Law Group executive.  The victory was the subject of an article today in Lawyers Weekly (view article). If you are an executive evaluating your severance package, give us a call. 1st Circuit Reopens Door to $11M Severance…

Minimum wage increase. Happy New Year everyone!  Great news for employees.  Massachusetts minimum wage increased to $13.5o on January 1, 2021, and the wage for tipped employees increased to $5.55, as long as those tipped employees earn more than $20 per month in tips. For those following the minimum wage increases in Massachusetts, this is…

Terminated employees may. In an effort to avoid their obligations under the Massachusetts Wage Act (“Wage Act”), many employers now condition the payment of commission on continued employment.  Sometimes those same employers the fire employees to avoid the commissions because the employee was not working when the commission came due.  This may no longer work.…

Au pairs areprotected. Many families in Massachusetts use au pairs to care for their children.  The United States Department of State (“DOS”) administers this “Au Pair Program,” whereby foreign nationals obtain a special type of visa and are placed with host families in the United States, so that the foreign nationals may provide in-home childcare…

Are inside salespersons who are paid 100% commission, entitled to overtime pay and Sunday Pay.  In short, yes. Overtime pay for inside sales work. On May 8, 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) issued guidance for all employees in Massachusetts who are inside salespersons and receive payment on a 100% commission basis.  In Sullivan…

Employees who settle cases. Employers work hard to make sure employees can’t hire their own lawyers. One way to do that is to make sure employee-side lawyers cannot get paid, and that typically means fighting the court award of attorney’s fees. An interesting question arose recently. Is an employee who settles a case under the Wage Act…

Union workers may lose. It has been long thought that union members would still have the protections of the Massachusetts Wage Act.  That our laws set a floor below which unions and employers could not dip below.  While some trial court judges have dismissed those protections, allowing unions and their employers to negotiate away rights…

Lawyers Weekly interviewed Philip Gordon for an article concerning the Attorney General’s new Pay Equity Guidance. (View Article) Gordon Interviewed About Pay Equity Law: Key Insights on Massachusetts’ Equal Pay Act In a recent interview, Gordon of Gordon Law Group shared valuable insights about the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act and its growing importance in the…

Every single attorney general just signed a letter to congress demanding the end of mandatory arbitration agreements. See letter to Congress. While the letter is limited to sexual harassment claims, this is a stunning development and signals a strong shift. As the Attorneys General noted: “While there may be benefits to arbitration provisions in other…

Fish rots from the head down. Philip Gordon was interviewed by the Brockton Enterprise concerning a new report released by the City of Brockton attempting to second guess the landmark $4M jury verdict awarded to Gordon Law Group’s client, Russell Lopes, for outrageous acts of discrimination and retaliation. Since that verdict, the City commissioned a…