Amanda Collins

Introduction If your business hires on-site independent contractors, a new Wisconsin Supreme Court decision should be on your radar. The Court’s April 2026 ruling in Lorbiecki v. Pabst Brewing Company takes a broad view of when employers can be held liable for injuries to a contractor’s employees—even when the employer had no say in how the work was performed. The ruling turns on Wisconsin’s “safe place” statute (Wis. Stat. § 101.11), one of the most protective workplace safety laws in the country.

On Friday, November 15, a Texas federal court turned back time on the minimum salary threshold rule for certain overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (“FLSA”)—halting the planned January 1, 2025, increase, reversing the already-effective July 1, 2024, increase, and turning back time to the salary threshold outlined in the 2019 rule (which was effective January 1, 2020). The decision impacts all employers covered by the FLSA on a nationwide basis.

Last week, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced its long-awaited final rule raising the minimum salary that certain employees must earn in order to be exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The final rule, which takes effect on July 1, 2024, increases the minimum salary for overtime exemptions to $844 per week, equating to a minimum annual salary of $43,888.