Employment Insights

Analysis and practical guides on employment.

12 articles, checklists, and guides on employment law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

EmploymentUnemployment Insurance

Filing and Appealing an Unemployment Claim: A Practical Guide

This guide takes an unemployment claim from the day of separation through a hearing and, if necessary, an appeal of an overpayment. It covers what to do in the first forty-eight hours, how to write the separation statement that a claims examiner reads first, how to ask for the alternative base period, how to prepare for the fact-finding interview, the weekly certification habits that prevent fraud findings, how to prepare and try a telephone hearing including the two cross-examination questions that decide most cases, and how to contest an overpayment and a fraud label separately.

Casey Scott McKayJune 6, 202628 min read

EmploymentDiscrimination

Employment Discrimination Toolkit: Charges, Position Statements, and Litigation

This toolkit supplies the worksheets, letters, and records that build an employment discrimination case, ordered by urgency. It opens with a deadline calculator, because that single question ends more claims than any argument, followed by an incident log and evidence inventory built to be kept contemporaneously. It provides a comparator worksheet keyed to the factors that make a comparator useful, an internal complaint and an accommodation request drafted to name what must be named, and a retaliation log that captures the timeline proximity that proves these claims. It includes a charge drafting worksheet covering the boxes people forget, a dual filing confirmation letter, a position statement response organized around the five kinds of pretext evidence, a mediation preparation sheet, a damages worksheet, a severance review checklist, and a records request.

Casey Scott McKayJune 4, 202618 min read

EmploymentDiscrimination

Employment Discrimination Charge Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a discrimination matter from the deadline through the charge and the ninety days that follow. It leads with finding the filing deadline this week, because that step ends more claims than any legal argument. It sets out the documentation to gather while memory and access still exist, the comparator questions to answer now, and the written internal complaint that removes an employer defense and creates a retaliation claim. It covers drafting the charge so it does not limit later litigation, confirming dual filing, requesting the position statement, and the second deadline after the right-to-sue letter. It closes with severance releases, the ADEA revocation rules, and what to do while a charge is pending.

Casey Scott McKayMay 27, 202610 min read

EmploymentUnemployment Insurance

Unemployment Insurance: Eligibility, Disqualification, Benefits, and Appeals

Unemployment insurance is a federal-state hybrid in which Congress sets conditions on state programs and the states write the substantive rules, which is why the answer to almost every question begins with the name of a state. This article explains the two-part eligibility test of monetary qualification and non-disqualifying separation, what misconduct really means and why the employer bears the burden, when quitting still qualifies, the continuing requirements of ability, availability, and work search, how benefits are computed, the constitutional limits the Supreme Court has imposed on religious and pregnancy-related disqualifications, the appeal structure, and the overpayment and fraud penalties that turn a benefit into a debt.

Casey Scott McKayMay 23, 202628 min read

EmploymentDiscrimination

Filing an Employment Discrimination Charge: A Practical Guide

This guide walks through filing a discrimination charge in the order the work has to be done, starting with the deadline that ends more claims than any argument. It explains how to calculate the window, why each discrete act starts its own clock and hostile environment does not, and how to preserve the deadline while you are still deciding. It covers what to write down before memory fades, how to identify comparators while you still have access, and why the internal written complaint is the single most important procedural step an employee can take. It then walks the charge itself — what the intake questionnaire does, how to draft the charge so it does not limit your later claims, and what happens through the position statement, mediation, investigation, and right-to-sue letter — and closes on severance releases and the second deadline nobody expects.

Casey Scott McKayMay 19, 202627 min read

EmploymentDiscrimination

Employment Discrimination: Protected Classes, Proof Frameworks, and the Charge Process

Employment discrimination law is a system of deadlines and proof frameworks that decides most cases long before anyone reaches the merits. This article explains who is covered and by which statute, the protected characteristics under federal law and the substantially broader lists many states add, and the difference between disparate treatment and disparate impact. It works through the burden-shifting framework that structures most cases, what a comparator is and why it does more work than any other category of evidence, and the hostile work environment standard with the employer defenses attached to it. It covers reasonable accommodation for disability and religion and the interactive process that decides those claims, retaliation — which is the most commonly filed and frequently the strongest claim — and the charge-filing deadlines that are short, jurisdictional in effect, and the single largest cause of otherwise meritorious claims being lost.

Casey Scott McKayMay 11, 202627 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage Claim Toolkit: Hour Reconstruction, Demand Letters, and Agency Filings

This toolkit contains the worksheets and letters that build a wage claim, ordered from the habit that costs ten seconds a day to the agency filing. It includes a daily hours log, a pay stub audit worksheet, and a regular rate recalculation worksheet that exposes the violation appearing on no pay stub. It provides an exemption duties worksheet and a classification worksheet keyed to the tests that actually decide those questions, an hour reconstruction table with an evidence inventory, and a damages calculation including liquidated damages and state penalties. It then supplies a preservation letter, a written internal complaint, a classification inquiry, a demand letter, state and federal agency filings, a retaliation log, a final paycheck demand, a personnel records request, and an attorney consultation preparation sheet.

Casey Scott McKayMay 3, 202619 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage Claim and Unpaid Overtime Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a wage claim from the habit that costs ten seconds a day through the agency filing and collection. It opens with the daily hours log and the pay stub audit that catches the four most common violations, including the regular rate error that appears on no pay stub and is arithmetically certain once a bonus is identified. It sets out the salary basis and duties tests that decide exempt status, the classification tests that decide contractor status including the ABC prong that fails for anyone doing a company's core business, and the evidence that reconstructs hours when an employer kept no records. It covers the written complaint that creates a retaliation claim, the choice among forums and what each preserves, and the parties to name when the employer has no money.

Casey Scott McKayApril 25, 20269 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Recovering Unpaid Wages: A Practical Guide

This guide is a sequence for a worker who suspects they are owed money, beginning with the habit that costs ten seconds a day and decides most claims. It explains how to reconstruct hours when the employer kept no records and why that absence helps rather than hurts, how to audit a pay stub for the four most common violations, and how to test an exemption against what you actually do rather than what your title says. It covers writing the complaint that converts a wage dispute into a wage-plus-retaliation dispute, choosing among the state labor agency, the federal Wage and Hour Division, and a private lawsuit, and what each route costs and preserves. It closes with the final paycheck penalties, collecting from an employer with no money, and what to do while still in the job.

Casey Scott McKayApril 17, 202627 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage Theft and Unpaid Wages: Overtime, Misclassification, and Getting Paid

Wage theft is the largest category of theft in the United States by dollar value, and almost none of it is prosecuted. This article explains what the Fair Labor Standards Act actually requires — minimum wage, overtime at one and one-half times the regular rate, and a recordkeeping obligation that falls on the employer rather than the worker — and then the four ways employers most often avoid paying: misclassifying employees as exempt, misclassifying them as independent contractors, requiring work off the clock, and manipulating the regular rate. It covers the tip credit and tip pooling rules, meal and rest break law which is largely a state matter, and final paycheck requirements that carry penalties in many states. It closes with the remedies — liquidated damages doubling the recovery, a three-year limitations period for willful violations, fee shifting, and the anti-retaliation provision that is frequently the stronger claim.

Casey Scott McKayApril 9, 202628 min read

EmploymentUnemployment Insurance

Unemployment Claim and Appeal Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs an unemployment claim from the day of separation through a hearing and an overpayment appeal. It is organized as sequences: the first forty-eight hours, the separation statement, the wage record, the fact-finding interview, weekly compliance, the appeal, hearing preparation, the hearing itself, and overpayments. Deadlines are flagged where they are short, which is nearly everywhere in this system. Both claimant and employer items are included, because the same hearing decides both. Use it with the accompanying article and guide.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 29, 20266 min read

EmploymentUnemployment Insurance

Unemployment Insurance Toolkit: Separation Evidence, Hearings, and Overpayments

This toolkit provides the working papers of an unemployment claim for both sides: the request for a written reason for separation, separation statement templates for discharge and quit, the alternative base period and employment status requests, an employer response template, a fact-finding preparation sheet, work search and earnings logs, the appeal letter, subpoena and exhibit tools, a hearing outline with cross-examination scripts, the board of review argument, and the overpayment, fraud, waiver, and repayment letters. Each is annotated with the rule it invokes. State forms and deadlines vary, so adapt before filing.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 17, 202612 min read