Labor and Employment Insights

Analysis and practical guides on labor and employment.

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

Labor and EmploymentEmployee Benefits

Employee Benefits Compliance Toolkit: ERISA, COBRA, and the Affordable Care Act

A group benefits program is a set of ERISA plans, each requiring a written document, a summary plan description, a fiduciary process, and a filing calendar — and most small and mid-sized employers have insurance certificates instead of plan documents, an insurance broker instead of a fiduciary process, and no idea which obligations run to the plan rather than to the carrier. This toolkit builds the program from the plan documents outward: the fiduciary structure and the fee analysis the Consolidated Appropriations Act now requires, the health plan overlay of COBRA, the ACA mandate and reporting, HIPAA, parity, and the newer transparency obligations, the retirement plan operational requirements, and the correction programs that exist because these failures are common. It sorts the plan documents, the fiduciary process, the notice calendar, and the reporting obligations into the order they actually come due. It also identifies where the carrier's obligations end and the employer's begin, which is the single most common source of unrecognized liability.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 2, 202414 min read

Labor and EmploymentEmployee Benefits

Administering COBRA and Group Health Plan Compliance

Group health plan compliance is administratively unglamorous and legally unforgiving, and COBRA is the part that generates the most litigation because the violations are documentary and uniform. A notice sent late, sent to the wrong address, or missing a required element supports statutory penalties per day per beneficiary, and the same defective template goes to everyone. This guide covers COBRA end to end: who is covered, what events trigger continuation, how long it lasts, the four notices and their deadlines, premiums and termination, and how the requirements interact with Medicare, severance, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace. It then covers the surrounding group health plan obligations that share the same administrative infrastructure, from ERISA documents and reporting through the newer transparency and fee disclosure rules.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 22, 202426 min read

Labor and EmploymentUnions

Union Organizing and the NLRA: What Employers May and May Not Do

Most employers first encounter labor law after a petition is filed, when the rules that were broken were broken months earlier by managers who had never heard of them. This article explains what the National Labor Relations Act actually protects and what it forbids. It starts with Section 7 rights, which apply to nearly all private-sector employees whether or not a union is involved, and the protected concerted activity doctrine that reaches ordinary conversations about pay and working conditions. It then walks an organizing campaign from card signing through election, covering what supervisors may say and what they may not, the solicitation and distribution rules that must exist before a campaign begins, and the bargaining orders that can follow serious violations. Later sections address bargaining unit determinations, supervisor status, the duty to bargain in good faith, strikes and lockouts, Weingarten rights, decertification, and the work rules and handbook provisions that generate unfair labor practice findings at non-union employers, with a worked example, a supervisor briefing script, and an FAQ.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 6, 202425 min read

Labor and EmploymentHR Policies

Hiring With Background Checks: FCRA Compliance, Ban-the-Box, and Adverse Action

Running a background check is a regulated act, and the regulation comes from three directions at once. The Fair Credit Reporting Act governs the mechanics — what you disclose, what you authorize, what you send before and after a decision, and in what form. Title VII and the EEOC's guidance govern whether the criteria you apply have a discriminatory effect. And a growing body of state and local fair chance laws governs when you may ask, what you may consider, and what individualized assessment you must perform before rejecting someone. This guide walks the process end to end, from the job posting through the adverse action letter, identifies the specific defects that generate class actions, and covers the related screening practices that carry their own rules.

Casey Scott McKayJune 28, 202426 min read

Labor and EmploymentPolicies and Procedures

Employment Law Toolkit: From Hiring Through Separation

Employment law is not one body of law but a dozen overlapping ones, and a small employer encounters them in a predictable sequence as each employee moves from applicant to alumnus. This toolkit follows that sequence. It covers what must be right before a job is posted, what an offer letter should and should not say, the classification decisions made at hire that determine years of wage exposure, the handbook and the policies that actually get litigated, the leave and accommodation machinery that trips up employers with no dedicated HR function, the documentation habits that decide termination cases long before termination, and the separation mechanics that turn a former employee into a plaintiff or into a signed release. Each stage links to the underlying articles and checklists and to the primary authority a practitioner will need.

Casey Scott McKayJune 25, 202414 min read

Labor and EmploymentWage and Hour

Preparing for a Department of Labor Wage and Hour Audit

A Wage and Hour Division investigation is a document-driven examination in which the employer's own records determine the outcome, and where the absence of records is resolved against the employer. Most investigations begin with a single employee complaint and expand to the entire workforce, the entire location, and in some cases every location the employer operates. This guide covers what triggers an investigation, what the investigator has authority to demand and what they do not, how the process unfolds from the opening conference to the closing conference, what the recurring findings actually are, how back wages and liquidated damages and penalties are computed, how to negotiate a resolution and what a supervised settlement does and does not release, and what a self-audit conducted before any of that should look like. It closes with the program that survives examination, the adjacent audits a wage finding can trigger, and the posture that determines how much a resolution actually costs.

Casey Scott McKayMay 2, 202425 min read

Labor and EmploymentContracts

Independent Contractor or Employee? Worker Classification Under the FLSA, the IRS Test, and State ABC Laws

Calling a worker an independent contractor does not make them one. Whether a worker is an employee is decided by tests that differ by statute, by agency, and by state, which means the same person can be an independent contractor for one purpose and an employee for another, at the same time, doing the same work. This article explains each of the tests that actually matter: the economic reality test under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Department of Labor rule that restated it, the common law control test the IRS applies for employment taxes, the common law agency test the Supreme Court adopted in Darden for statutes that do not define employee, the ABC test that California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and other states apply, and the National Labor Relations Board's shifting standard. It explains what each test asks, where they diverge, and which facts move the analysis. It then covers the consequences of getting it wrong, which extend well beyond back wages to payroll taxes, benefits, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, and intellectual property ownership, and it explains the Section 530 safe harbor that can eliminate federal tax liability entirely. It closes with a classification audit, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 21, 202425 min read

Labor and EmploymentHealth and Safety

OSHA Compliance and Workplace Safety Enforcement

Safety enforcement is one of the few regulatory regimes where an inspector can arrive without notice, walk the floor, interview employees privately, and issue penalties based on what a supervisor says in the first ten minutes. This article explains the system and how to be ready for it. It covers the statutory structure, the general duty clause that reaches hazards no standard addresses, and the standards that generate the most citations year after year. It then walks recordkeeping and the reporting deadlines that are measured in hours, the anatomy of an inspection from the opening conference through the closing conference, and the citation classifications that determine penalty exposure. Later sections cover contesting citations, abatement and settlement, multi-employer worksite liability, state plan differences, criminal exposure, and the anti-retaliation provisions that turn a safety complaint into an employment claim, with a worked example, a program checklist, and an FAQ.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 2, 202425 min read

Labor and EmploymentWorkers Compensation

Workers Compensation: The Grand Bargain, the Claim, and the Exceptions

Workers compensation is the oldest and largest no-fault system in American law, and almost nobody outside it understands the trade it makes. An injured worker gives up the right to sue the employer and to recover for pain and suffering; in exchange, benefits are paid without proving fault and without the delay of litigation. This article explains the bargain and everything that follows from it: what injuries are covered and the phrases that decide coverage, the benefit categories and how each is calculated, the medical control fights that dominate modern practice, the exceptions that let a worker sue anyway, the third-party claim that is often worth more than the compensation case, and the settlement mechanics. It is written for injured workers, employers, and the lawyers on both sides.

Casey Scott McKayNovember 12, 202328 min read

Labor and EmploymentHR Policies

How to Write an Employee Handbook

An employee handbook is the single most-read legal document most workers ever encounter, and a poorly drafted one can quietly hand away the at-will defense, violate federal labor law, or become Exhibit A in a discrimination suit. This guide walks through how to write a handbook that informs employees, reflects your culture, and protects the company. It covers the at-will/disclaimer balance and the implied-contract trap, the essential policies every handbook needs (EEO and anti-harassment, ADA accommodation, FMLA and other leave, wage-hour, PTO, code of conduct, social media, confidentiality), the National Labor Relations Board's shifting standard for facially neutral work rules after Stericycle (2023), acknowledgment forms, multistate complications, arbitration agreements, and how a handbook becomes evidence. Plain-English throughout, with worked examples and current authority through 2026. It closes with an FAQ and links to related mclaw.io resources.

Casey Scott McKayOctober 23, 202337 min read

Labor and EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage and Hour Compliance Toolkit

Wage and hour exposure is created by systems configured once and never tested, not by decisions anyone made to underpay. The classifications were set when the roles were created, the payroll system was configured at implementation, and the rounding rule has run untouched for six years. Meanwhile the exposure compounds across the whole job classification, doubles through liquidated damages, and extends a third year on a willfulness finding. This toolkit builds and tests the program: classifying correctly and documenting close calls, configuring the regular rate so overtime is right when a bonus is paid, capturing hours including remote and pre-shift work, handling contractors and joint employment, layering state requirements, running the self-audit, and responding to a Department of Labor investigation or a collective action when one arrives.

Casey Scott McKayOctober 17, 202314 min read

Labor and EmploymentContracts

Worker Classification Audit Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Misclassification is unusual among compliance problems because a single worker triggers exposure under four or five separate legal regimes at once, each applying its own test and each with its own agency. This checklist runs an audit that accounts for that. It starts by building the population and gathering the documents that will determine the answer, then applies the tests in the order that matters: the state ABC test where one applies, the FLSA economic reality test, the common law control test for tax and benefits, and the state-specific unemployment and workers compensation standards. Later phases cover the second classification question employers often forget, which is whether workers already classified as employees are correctly treated as exempt, and the practical mechanics of remediation, including reclassification without creating an admission and the voluntary programs that reduce back-tax exposure.

Casey Scott McKayOctober 1, 20239 min read