Tag Archives: discretionary bonus

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the administrator for a fulltime fire and EMS district. We have several personnel that work part-time collateral positions within our organization. These collateral positions include training officer, EMS coordinator, and HAZMAT officer. Personnel receive overtime when working in these capacities outside of their normal work hours, however they also spend a great deal of their ...

Two Arkansas paramedics have filed a lawsuit alleging that their employer, Ambulance Services of Forrest City, LLC (Forrest City, LLC), violated the FLSA by not including nondiscretionary bonuses in their regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA and the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act (AMWA). The suit, which was filed on October 19, 2023, in the U.S. District Court ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a third-party EMS agency that contracts 911 service for a rural county. Our agency is struggling to find medics and EMTs. As a result, overtime and mandatory overtime has turned into the norm. In an effort to incentivize employees to take additional shifts, my company has begun offering a bonus in addition to overtime ...

For the second year in a row, Florida firefighters, paramedics, and law enforcement officers will receive $1,000 bonus checks from the state. The program, which is intended to reward the work of first responders state-wide, allocates $125 million to the program. In total over 100,000 first responders will receive checks. Gov. DeSantis hand-delivered some of the checks to Jacksonville Fire ...

Today’s FLSA Question: My fire department initiated a “sign-on bonus” program for paramedics a couple of years ago. Under the terms of the program, lateral paramedic transfers received a one-time $5,000 sign-on bonus at the time of hire. In exchange for the bonus, the paramedic signed an agreement that they would remain employed with the fire department for at least ...

The City of Kansas City, Missouri has reached a global settlement with 383 current and former city firefighters following their 2019 lawsuit for alleged violations of the FLSA. The firefighters alleged in the lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri on February 8, 2019, that the city failed to include specialty ...

The City of New York is once again facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by FDNY Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers. In a 15-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 16, 2021, three named plaintiffs claim the City of New York is systematically underpaying its EMS workers. Specifically, the complaint alleges ...

The City of Chickasha, Oklahoma is facing a lawsuit filed by city firefighters for unpaid overtime. A group of thirty-one, current and former Chickasha firefighters filed the lawsuit in federal court earlier this month. Specifically, the firefighters allege the city failed to include contractually guaranteed longevity payments in their regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. As a ...