Frequently Asked Questions

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The answer depends. You may be entitled to overtime pay but the answer will depend on your industry, your classification, and a number of other factors. The Department of Labor has some excellent fact sheets covering this topic: Overtime Pay: Fact Sheets | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov).  

Both the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) provide protections to workers over 40. Whether your termination is a violation of these laws will depend on a number of factors, including the size of your organization, the age of others who were let go and those who were retained, and the employer’s reason(s) for the termination(s). 

In most circumstances, yes. 

The FMLA only applies to employers with 50 or more employees in a 75-mile radius of the worksite and the employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of FMLA leave. You will have no rights under the FMLA in this circumstance but may have rights under other state and local laws depending on where you live and work.

You can’t work through the break without your employer potentially violating state and federal laws mandating rest periods. Unfortunately, none of the laws that mandate those rest periods require that the rest period be compensated.

Both federal and state discrimination laws have what are called administrative prerequisites. That means that rather than filing a lawsuit in court you must first file something called a “charge” with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or a related state agency. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov)

Sadly, there is no law that requires an employer to pay holidays or pay special rates to work holidays. 

Your employer can contest your request for unemployment benefits if you left voluntarily, and unless you are successful in establishing one of the narrow exemptions, in most cases your application for benefits will be denied. 

It depends on what sort of restrictive covenant (or covenants) you signed when you began employment (if any) and the laws in your jurisdiction regarding their enforceability. Depending on your industry and the location of your employment, covenants may be void as a matter of public policy or require certain consideration (in the form of years of service or compensation in exchange for the covenant). So yes, your current employer could sue you for breach if you signed an enforceable covenant. Proceed with caution!

In most cases, no. While these sorts of policies must be carefully drafted and applied to avoid running afoul of other employment laws (gender discrimination, for example) employers can (and frequently do) place limitations on romantic entanglements in the workplace. These can take the form of consensual relationship disclosures, precluding supervisory relationships like the one envisioned here, or requiring employees not to work in the same departments.