Federal minimum wage and overtime protection extended to home care workers

Employment Law – Soon, in-home care workers will be protected by the FLSA….As the Baby Boomer generation ages, the use of in-home health care and companionship services will increase. Until very recently, most in-home or direct care workers were not protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime protections. Starting on January 1, 2015, a new rule drafted by the U.S. Department of Labor will take effect, extending minimum wage and overtime protections to most direct care workers in the United States. Chicago-based labor and employment attorney Douglas Werman represents employees in wage and hour lawsuits. He says that the new regulations “will help increase living wages for nearly 2 million working people who are currently among the lowest-paid employees in the United States.” READ MORE AT http://lnkd.in/dSzYsmj

Whittier Law School grads among most challenged in finding work

Graduates of a Costa Mesa law school struggle to find stable employment more than students from other accredited colleges, according to a Register analysis of law schools nationwide. The Costa Mesa school, located on Harbor Boulevard near the I-405, is affiliated with Whittier College and is called the Whittier Law School. More than 500 students attend annually with tuition priced at $42,000. “We are by no means satisfied with letting things be,” associate dean Martin Pritikin said. “We are working very hard to implement programs and changes that should help our graduates with employment.”  Over the past three years, Whittier has reported that about one in every four students obtained full-time, long-term attorney jobs within nine months of graduation – one of the worst track records in the country and less than half the national average. In California, only Golden Gate University in San Francisco posted a lower employment rate among 2013 graduates, the most recent year of available data. The employment statistics were obtained from an online database published by the American Bar Association, which oversees Whittier and more than 200 other law schools nationwide as an accrediting agency. READ MORE AT http://lnkd.in/bdSzmjf

Migrant employment on the rise

Skilled migrants are enjoying better jobs and higher levels of employment thanks to a shift in policy, according to a new study by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. Co-author of the study, Dr Hielke Buddelmeyer, said the federal government has improved employment outcomes by increasing the number of employer sponsorships available and tightening selection criteria. “In the mid 2000s the government selected four skilled migrants for every one selected by employers but now that division is approximately equal,” Dr Buddelmeyer said. Allowing more employers to sponsor migrant workers is like subcontracting migrant selection to the employers themselves, which encourages higher employability.