Labor & Employment

Overview

Edgeworth is a leader in evaluating complex economic issues in the field of labor and employment, applying our skills in both expert testimony and consulting engagements. Our experts are well-known for developing a thorough understanding of our clients’ specific businesses and applying tailored, innovative approaches to rigorously analyze their data to provide creative, reliable solutions to the issues at hand.

Our experts combine intellectual insight, expertise in labor economics and statistics, practical experience, and the firm’s vast data capabilities to provide exceptional analysis on a wide range of labor and employment issues.

Across these practice areas, we routinely extract, synthesize, and analyze extensive amounts of information from a variety of complex employment databases. Our rigorous approach and data analysis capabilities ensure that our conclusions in both litigation and consulting stand up to close scrutiny and real-world application.

Case Highlights

Case Highlights

Insights & News

Publications

  • Published Article, Law360 | 06.06.2024

    In April, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final overtime rule,under which the salary level for the white-collar Fair Labor Standards Act overtime exemption will be $1,128 per week, effective January 2025.

  • Published Article, Law360 | 05.01.2024

    To comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. Department of Labor requires that H-2B visa workers, who are employed in less-skilled seasonal work, must be paid at least the prevailing wage for their occupation and work location.

  • White Paper, Edgeworth Economics | 10.26.2023

    The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) September 8, 2023 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) increases the standard salary level for the white-collar exemption to the 35th percentile of the pay distribution of full-time, non-hourly workers in the South Census region and imposes automatic updates to the salary threshold every three years.  The automatic adjustments would use the most recent quarterly data from the Current Population Survey to determine the 35th percentile of the pay distribution for full-time non-hourly workers in the South Census region. 

  • White Paper, Edgeworth Economics | 10.24.2023

    The Department of Labor’s September 8, 2023 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) increases the salary threshold for the white-collar FLSA exemption.  In the NPRM, the Department explains that the purpose of the salary level test is to serve as an initial screening tool.[1]  It then goes on to downplay the extent to which the new threshold will increase the fraction of white-collar workers who will fail the salary level test by stating “the number of salaried white-collar employes for whom salary would be determinative of their non-exempt status and who earn at least the long test salary level – 3.2 million – is nearly ten times smaller than the number of salaried white-collar workers for whom job duties would continue to be determinative of their exemption status…”[2] 

  • Published Article, Law360 | 04.26.2023

    Dr. Stephen Bronars of Edgeworth Economics analyzes the anticipated new salary thresholds for the Fair Labor Standards Act, expected to be proposed in May.

  • Published Article, A condensed version of this article was published in Bloomberg Law | 03.07.2023

    Dr. Stephen Bronars of Edgeworth Economics analyzes the Federal Trade Commission’s stance that non-compete clauses reduce worker earnings across industries, saying that research doesn’t support this conclusion.

  • Published Article, ABA Antitrust Magazine | 09.13.2022

    In this article, Edgeworth CEO Dr. John Johnson and Edgeworth President Chuck Fields, along with Kirkland & Ellis Partner James H. Mutchnik, map the DOJ’s evolving position over time and discuss both the legal and economic reasons why it is improper to presume that all such agreements should be treated under a per se standard as de facto market allocation.

  • Published Article, Law360 | 06.13.2022

    The Congressional Progressive Caucus recently proposed an increase in the salary threshold that they claim will reach $82,732 by 2026 $1,591 per week. Businesses required to accurately record the work hours and accurately calculate regular rates of millions of managers and professionals, many of whom receive bonuses and commissions, are likely to face a considerable increase in compliance costs.

  • Published Article, Law360 | 05.11.2021

    In this article Dr. Stephen Bronars quantifies the impact of the new $15 minimum wage for three contractor jobs that were identified by the White House in its announcement of the executive order. He shows that the impact of a $15 minimum wage for janitors, cafeteria attendants and nursing assistants varies substantially by metropolitan area.

  • Published Article, Law360 | 05.01.2020

    Headlines announcing impending layoffs and furloughs abound as the economy declines due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus and a downturn in the oil and gas sector. Depending on the demographics of their employees, some firms may be particularly susceptible to risk of adverse impact in layoff and furlough decisions.

  • Law360 | 04.15.2019

    Edgeworth Partners Dr. Stephen Bronars and Dr. Deborah Foster discuss the Department of Labor's recent proposal to increase the HCE salary threshold from $100,000 to $147,414. 

  • Edgeworth Economics | 06.18.2018

    By 2022, the California minimum wage will be $15, and it will increase annually after that based on inflation. The California white collar exemption requires that employees be paid twice the minimum wage. As a result, some employees who pass the duties test will soon be ineligible for the white collar exemption based on their salaries. Employers should review all jobs under the white collar exemption to ensure they remain above the threshold as the salary test level increases. Edgeworth's labor and employment experts have compiled a guide to the factors employers should consider when reviewing jobs with salaries close to the threshold.

  • Law360 | 05.23.2018

    In anticipation of future civil class actions related to no-poach and wage-fixing agreements, Edgeworth Partners Dr. Stephen Bronars and Dr. Deborah Foster have published a two-part primer in Law360 on wage analyses that are frequently used in employment discrimination cases and will become increasingly relevant as labor issues cross over into the antitrust arena.

  • Law360 | 05.23.2018

    In anticipation of future civil class actions related to no-poach and wage-fixing agreements, Edgeworth Partners Dr. Stephen Bronars and Dr. Deborah Foster have published a two-part primer in Law360 on wage analyses that are frequently used in employment discrimination cases and will become increasingly relevant as labor issues cross over into the antitrust arena.

  • Law360  | 06.17.2016

    The DOL's estimate of an additional 2.5 percent increase in the new salary threshold over three adjustments may not be accurate and likely understates its magnitude.

  • Law360  | 05.12.2016

    The pay ranges specified in the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's proposed EEO-1 forms are broader than the pay differences it aims to detect. While the goal of determining instances of pay discrimination is sensible, the authors show that the proposed data collection system is unlikely to accomplish the objective.

  • Law360 | 10.09.2015

    In this Law360 article, Dr. Stephen Bronars and Dr. Nathan Woods discuss the possibly profound consequences of using external benchmarks when conducting analyses of age discrimination allegations.

  • Law360 | 09.25.2015

    Mr. Michael Kheyfets, Dr. Deborah Foster and Dr. Nathan Woods discuss the 10 questions you should ask your experts who are working with your sensitive data. 

  • Law360 | 08.25.2015

    Drs. Bronars, Foster, and Woods discuss the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed salary test for the white collar exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

  • Law360 | 08.14.2015

    Drs. Deborah K. Foster, Stephen G. Bronars, and Nathan D. Woods published the article “Approaches to Hourly Rates Under DOL White Collar Rules” in Law360.

  • Law360 | 07.17.2015

    Dr. Stephen Bronars and Chuck Fields, along with Christopher Craig of O’Melveny & Myers, co-authored the article in Law360.

  • Law360 | 05.29.2015

    This article by Dr. Nathan Woods is the third article in a three part series discussing the statistical analysis of class certification topics in wage-and-hour class and collective actions.

  • Law360 | 05.28.2015

    This article by Dr. Nathan Woods is the second article in a three part series discussing the statistical analysis of class certification topics in wage-and-hour class and collective actions.

  • Law360 | 05.27.2015

    This article by Dr. Nathan Woods is the first article in a three part series discussing the statistical analysis of class certification topics in wage-and-hour class and collective actions. 

  • Law360 | 03.22.2013

    Dr. Korenko published an article in Law360 that discusses the idea of fairness in executive compensation from an economic perspective.

  • Edgeworth Economics | 08.08.2012

    Dr. Jesse David completed analysis of comprehensive concussion and injury data for the 2011 NFL season, along with comparisons to prior seasons going back to 2004.

  • Law360 | 11.01.2011
  • Antitrust Magazine | 06.28.2011

    This article examines recent class actions, including a review of the issues that affect economic analysis as it relates to antitrust matters.

  • Law360  | 06.25.2010

    Matthew Milner opined on the reliability of structured data in litigation, writing “Structured data is frequently the foundation of expert analysis in litigation for a variety of damages and liability issues."

Edgeworth Insights

  • Blog, 09.04.2024

    In late June 2024, a four-day bench trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to determine if American Airlines had violated its duties to employees by allowing the asset managers of its employees’ 401(k) plans to pursue environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) goals.

  • Blog, 08.22.2024

    California’s minimum wage increased by 25% to $20 per hour on April 1 for limited-service restaurants with at least 60 locations in the U.S. Little attention has been paid to a part of the law that will cause thousands of managers in these businesses to lose their exempt status and may increase wage and hour lawsuits against these businesses.

  • Blog, 07.31.2024

    On April 1 the minimum wage in California increased by 25% to $20 per hour for limited-service restaurants with at least 60 locations in the U.S.

  • Blog, 07.30.2024

    Companies may be interested in assessing their compensation policies for a number of reasons. In a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, three-quarters of firms responded that they regularly audit for pay equity across a variety of characteristics such as gender, race or ethnicity, and age.

  • Blog, 06.24.2024

    The recent 25% increase in California’s minimum wage from $16 to $20, for limited-service restaurants (including fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and juice bars) with at least 60 locations nationwide, has sparked controversy.

  • Blog, 06.06.2024

    In April, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final overtime rule,under which the salary level for the white-collar Fair Labor Standards Act overtime exemption will be $1,128 per week, effective January 2025.

  • Blog, 05.15.2024

    In the Final Rule “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees” (Rule), the Department of Labor (DOL) dismisses concerns that the proposed mechanism for automatically updating the standard salary level will result in increases to the salary level above and beyond those related to wage growth. 

  • Blog, 05.07.2024

    This article provides a preview of the range of H-2B wage increases mandated by the DOL. As explained in a recent analysis volatility in H-2B prevailing wages is caused by the DOL’s methodology and limited sample sizes, especially in less populated labor market areas, and may discourage employers from relying on the H-2B program.

  • Blog, 05.01.2024

    To comply with the Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. Department of Labor requires that H-2B visa workers, who are employed in less-skilled seasonal work, must be paid at least the prevailing wage for their occupation and work location.

  • 04.25.2024

    The American Bar Association Labor and Employment Section held its annual Equal Employment Opportunity Law Conference in Boston from March 19 to March 22, 2024. Over 200 attendees took part in the four-day conference.

  • Blog, 04.19.2024

    We have developed a tool that provides a preview of the prevailing wages that the OFLC will officially announce on July 1, 2024. Our interactive tool focuses on 34 occupations that account for a majority of H-2B visas in over 3,000 combinations of states and counties.

  • Blog, 01.11.2024

    Federal anti-discrimination laws in the U.S. protect applicants, employees, and former employees from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and genetic information. One dimension not included is discrimination based on an individual’s “caste.”

  • Blog, 12.18.2023

    Farmers and ranchers who hire seasonal workers on H-2A visas will face prevailing wages in 2024 that are about 5.54% higher, on average, than in 2023.  This occurs after a large increase in H-2A wages between 2022 and 2023.  The H-2A visa program requires that visa workers, and domestic workers in corresponding employment, are paid at least the prevailing wage, or Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR).  AEWRs are determined by the US Department of Labor (DOL) and vary by region.  AEWRs will increase in every region between 2023 and 2024 with the largest increases in Hawaii (8.64%), Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina (7.39%), and Oregon and Washington (7.12%).

  • Blog, 10.31.2023

    The NPRM claims the new salary threshold for the EAP exemption “will, in combination with the standard duties test, better define and delimit which employees are employed in a bona fide EAP capacity in a one-test system.”  However, the new salary threshold is set at the 35th percentile of the non-hourly pay distribution in the South region, which is $1,059 per week.  The non-hourly pay distribution includes many blue-collar workers and white-collar workers explicitly excluded from the FLSA (such as teachers), raising doubts as to whether an arbitrary threshold from this distribution has any ability to determine which EAP employees are bona fide.

  • Blog, 10.30.2023

    The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) NPRM provides estimates of the number of employees affected by the proposed salary test level increases, but projections are only as good as the data on which they are based.  In fact, there is no data currently collected that would enable an accurate and reliable estimate of the number of employees who are subject to the FLSA or how many employees are classified as exempt, much less an estimate of those that would be impacted by the proposed changes. 

  • Blog, 10.27.2023

    The NPRM touts that an estimated 3.4 million employees will “gain overtime protection” under the proposed regulations.  As described in our post on October 25, it is unlikely that the new rule will increase compensation of the re-classified employees.

  • Blog, 10.25.2023

    The Department of Labor claims that the increased salary test level will “give employees higher earnings in the form of transfers of income from employers to employees,” but that assertion is inconsistent with economic reasoning.  Even the economic studies cited in the NPRM cast doubt on that assumption. 

  • Blog, 10.23.2023

    On September 8, 2023, a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) from the Department of Labor was published in the Federal Register titled “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees.”

  • Blog, 10.23.2023

    The Department of Labor’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the white-collar exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) includes an initial regulatory flexibility analysis that is required for all regulations that will have a material impact on small businesses.  In that analysis, the Department concludes that 1.3 million workers employed by between 179,700 and 1.3 million small businesses will be impacted by the substantial increase in the white-collar exemption salary threshold in the NPRM.  However, that analysis almost certainly understates the impact on small businesses.

  • Blog, 09.07.2023

    Employers may not be paying attention to BIPA and resulting litigation in Illinois, but they should. BIPA class action lawsuits have surged since 2015, and filings are expected to reach new heights by the end 2023 [1]. Similar proposals, often modeled after BIPA, have emerged in Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington, and others are likely to follow [2] [3].

  • Blog, 06.06.2023

    When tasked to quantify potential pay gaps between gender or race groups, economists usually rely on multivariate regression analysis. In pay equity studies, this regression estimates the average pay difference between male and female employees after accounting for important factors which affect pay. However, if any of those factors (known as control variables) are measured with error, pay differences might erroneously be attributed to gender and biased results can emerge.

  • Blog, 03.07.2023

    Dr. Stephen Bronars of Edgeworth Economics analyzes the Federal Trade Commission’s stance that non-compete clauses reduce worker earnings across industries, saying that research doesn’t support this conclusion.

  • Blog, 12.02.2022

    Farmers and ranchers who hire foreign-born seasonal workers on H-2A visas will face prevailing wages in 2023 that are about 9.36% higher, on average, than the prevailing wages for H-2A workers in 2022.

  • Blog, 11.01.2022

    Edgeworth Economics President Chuck Fields and Principal Consultant Dr. Stephanie Cheng recently presented on this topic at the DC SHRM 2022 Annual Conference. This post summarizes their key takeaways from that event.

  • Blog, 06.27.2022

    Federal and state labor laws limit which employees can legally be paid a salary independent of hours worked. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the Federal law requiring that certain workers receive overtime compensation, at 1.5 times their regular rate of pay, for all hours of work above 40 each week.

  • Blog, 06.07.2022

    On March 7th, the Treasury Department released a draft report entitled “The State of Labor Market Competition” (herein “the report” or “the Treasury”), which addressed the level of concentration and anti-competitive labor practices in the U.S. economy. The report claimed to reaffirm the current administration’s executive orders regarding promoting competition in labor markets and examines possible implications.

  • Blog, 03.01.2022

    We gathered our Labor and Employment experts together and asked them:  What is the “Great Resignation,” and what does it mean for employers?

    Excerpts of their wide-ranging conversation were lightly edited for clarity and reported here.

Speaking Engagements

News

Of Significance Podcast

  • 09.17.2024

    Are the kids alright? Are they working hard enough? Steve, Nathan, and Brent break down the drama around summer employment among the youths and talk about some of the summer jobs they used to have.

  • 08.06.2024

    Brent and Nathan plumb the depths of Steve’s mind to get to the bottom of the question on everybody’s mind: is there anything that Steve Bronars doesn’t know about the unemployment rate? Listen to find out! Spoiler: the answer is “probably."

  • 07.23.2024

    Nathan, Brent, and Steve finally take on academic elites and their out of control theories about human capital, how it's measured, and whether it's important. Just kidding, this is a classic, balanced episode about human capital in theory and practice that's completely hinged. This episode doesn't just have economics though: it's also got science and art (kind of)!

  • 07.09.2024

    Let's get meta right off the bat as Nathan, Brent, and Steve think about how we think about what's important. In this kickoff episode, they dive deep into the different ways things matter or mislead and Steve reminisces about a poll that came out when he was a wee lad.

  • 06.27.2024

    Edgeworth Economics' new podcast featuring experts Dr. Steve Bronars, Dr. Nathan Woods, and Brent Butgereit premieres soon. Check out our trailer here!

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