Sylvia Bokyung St. Clair Discusses U.S. Labor Law Updates on the CoStar News Hotels Podcast

Labor and employment partner Sylvia Bokyung St. Clair appeared on the CoStar News Hotel podcast to discuss new developments in U.S. labor laws affecting hotel operators. 

“It’s been an interesting last couple of months,” St. Clair shared, highlighting recent opinion letters from the Department of Labor that address tip-pooling eligibility and joint-employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

She described a case where two entities tried to argue they were separate legal companies, had different payroll systems and different time-keeping systems, so the Labor Department should not consider them as a joint employer. The Labor Department disagreed.

“They said that what they look at is not necessarily corporate formalities, but instead they look at shared management and ownership,” St. Clair explained. “They looked at the fact that the hostess was working in both locations. There was some type of coordination in scheduling. There were similar/identical rates of pay. In all essence, they were operating as one entity.”

St. Clair also discussed minimum wage increases. She noted that while the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees, there are at least 19 states that have increased their own minimum wage amounts as of January 1. “One thing that's really important for employers to pay attention to is that it's not just the states, but what we're seeing more and more is that cities and counties now have their own minimum wage.”