News & Insights

In May 2016, the Department of Labor published its final rule, more than doubling the threshold for overtime pay. In December 2016, a federal court in Texas issued a nationwide injunction preventing enforcement.

Across the nation there are currently 24 states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. Medicinal marijuana can be used as a treatment for multiple conditions ranging from chronic pain to epilepsy to cancer. But, while many states have legalized medicinal marijuana, individuals using marijuana in compliance with state law are concurrently violating federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana. Discussion and guidance follows.

On August 2, 2016, the Treasury Department released a proposal to modify the tax regulations for transferring interests in family owned corporations, partnerships, LLCs and family farms. If the proposed regulations are approved in their current form, the transfer tax cost of transferring interests in a corporation to family members will increase significantly.

In August 2016, House Bill (HB) 2274 was introduced into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The proposed legislation would require school districts to utilize a Request for Proposal (RFP) process when awarding transportation contracts and the contracts would automatically expire every 2-3 years.

On May 12, 2016 OSHA published a final rule on reporting workplace injuries and illnesses that affects most school bus contractors. The OSHA final rule requires employers in certain industries to electronically submit the safety information which they are already required to collect and keep manually. Now, OSHA will post this information on its publicly accessible website.

On April 17, 2016 Governor Tom Wolf signed the medical marijuana bill (Pennsylvania Senate Bill 3) into law, making Pennsylvania the 24th state in the union to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes. According to the law, there are 17 conditions for which marijuana could be used to treat, ranging from chronic pain to epilepsy to cancer. The law will allow up to 25 growers/processors and up to 150 dispensary locations. Because these new enterprises must go through rigorous steps to establish th...

Who is hourly and who is salary in your organization? That could all change soon. In July, 2015 the Department of Labor (DOL) gave notice of a proposed rule making that would increase the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum salary threshold for employee exemptions from overtime protections. The proposed change is dramatic enough to affect 5 million workers and require most employers to restructure the nature of jobs and their workforce to comply with the Act. The changes are expected to be p...