Eugene Scalia nominated for DOL Secretary:  President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to tap Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP partner Eugene Scalia to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, replacing the outgoing Labor chief Alexander Acosta.  Scalia, son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is a management-side attorney who's represented the likes of Walmart and The Boeing Co. in high-profile labor cases. Notably, in 2018 Scalia persuaded the Fifth Circuit to strike down a controversial, Obama-era Department of Labor fiduciary rule requiring retirement advisers to act in the best interest of clients. In the interim, Acosta's deputy Patrick Pizzella will take over as acting secretary, according to the Labor Department.  Source: Law360 7/18/19

U.S. House passes bill to raise federal minimum wage:  The House passed the Raise the Wage Act (H.R. 582) on July 17, 2019. The bill would increase the federal minimum wage over a six-year period until it reaches $15 an hour. Specifically, in the first year of the effective date, the minimum wage would increase by $1.30 from $7.25 to $8.55 per hour, and it would then rise every year thereafter in increments of $1.30 for four years, and in the fifth year by $1.25, to reach $15.00. Future increases would be indexed to median wage growth. The bill would also phase out the subminimum wage for tipped employees, repeal the rarely used subminimum wage for youth workers, and end subminimum wage certificates for individuals with disabilities. The President has threatened a veto, and it is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate this year.  Source:  CCH 7/19/19

Slow hiring process turns off candidates:  Today’s talent market has employers pulling out all the stops to compete for workers— such as ramping up benefits, focusing on the employee experience, and easing qualifications—but all of those efforts may be for naught if hiring managers don’t act quickly and decisively enough. The evolving role of the hiring manager was the target of a recent report from Gartner. As the world of work is rapidly redefined, the No. 1 skill for hiring managers needs to be decisiveness, which the organization defines as “focusing on prioritizing future talent needs, broadening the candidate funnel, and sharing hiring decisions with experts across the organization.”  Gartner found that, in 2018, the average time between the initial job interview and the hiring manager making an offer was 33 days—an 84% increase since 2010. “The longer decision-making stage is causing a 16% reduction in candidates accepting offers,” says Lauren Smith, vice president of Gartner’s HR practice. “Ultimately, hiring managers are losing out on prime candidates because of this lag in decision-making.”    Source:  HR Executive 7/15/19

Can an HR representative go to jail for doing their job?   Yes, but not common.  When employers do not comply with employment laws, civil charges and lawsuits are not the only thing that can happen.  In what may come as an unwelcome surprise to employers, and to Human Resources in particular, these laws have criminal penalties embedded in them too.  For example, willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) – the federal wage and hour law that also contains certain child labor provisions – may be prosecuted criminally, with violators subject to potential fines of up to $10,000.  Various states also have their own wage and hour laws, and many of them include criminal sanctions.  The Department of Justice also enforces certain immigration laws that carry potential criminal penalties for employers.  These laws are especially noteworthy in today’s atmosphere of heightened immigration enforcement.  Employers who unlawfully employ persons who are not authorized to work in the United States could be subject to criminal prosecution.  Federal and state OSHA laws also contain criminal in addition to civil penalty provisions.  Stay up to date on all employment laws by attending ASE’s 2019 Employment Law Conference. Source:  Foley & Lardner 7/11/19

Bring your baby to work? Working parents of newborns often face a difficult decision when it comes to childcare. They can put the baby in day care and return to work, but that means being away from the baby for hours at a time. That also means paying for day care services. According to 2018 research from the Maryland Family Network, families in Baltimore County pay an estimated $20,200 to have two children in day care each year. The median family income of those in Baltimore County is $86,700, the research said. Parents have another option, of course: to stay home until the child is older.  However, some companies are addressing this dilemma by providing a third choice — letting parents bring their babies to work. Such programs may provide employers a boost, too. "Companies benefit from this program, too, because the parent invests in doing the job well to make the arrangement work," Carla Moquin, founder of Parenting in the Workplace Institute said. "They're so grateful to have this time with their child, and a paycheck, and be physically present in career, they work really hard."  At least 70 companies have been found to do this.  Source: HR Dive 7/17/19