Representing Business in the Fox Valley
The Department of Labor (DOL) has made some pervasive changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which will affect the minimum salary requirement for employees to be considered Exempt from overtime. As of December 1, 2016 the DOL has raised the minimum salary for administrative, professional, and executive positions from $23,660 to $47,476 to...
On December 4, 2015, House Bill 1285 was signed into law, codifying how the industry defined employee misconduct for purposes of unemployment insurance claims. With the new legislation, the question becomes whether the clarified misconduct violations will automatically bar a former employee from obtaining unemployment benefits. Prior to House...
Effective January 1, 2015, Illinois legislature enacted a law that requires private employers with 15 or more employees to remove “the box” on their employment applications which asks whether or not the applicant has been convicted of a felony. Thus the name “Ban the Box”. Some employers ask that potential applicants complete an employment...
Unfortunately it sometimes takes a tragedy such as the recent shooting of Nadia Ezaldein at Nordstrom store by her ex-boyfriend, Marcus Dee, to make us as business owners think about what we could have done to prevent this from happening in our place of business. Fortunately, the State of Illinois has 2 little known laws in place that can offer...
An individual who wanted to trademark “BioMcDiesel” won’t be allowed to do so according to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which ruled (McDonald’s Corp. v. Joseph, July 14, 2014, Bergsman, M.) that consumers would likely confuse the proposed biofuel mark with McDonald Corp.’s family of “Mc” trademarks. The applicant, Joel Joseph, filed an...
On June 30th, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of three family-owned businesses, with the majority of the court saying that businesses can refuse to pay for certain forms of contraception they find “morally repugnant.” At issue are four contraceptives known as abortifacients which are contraceptives that prevent ovum implantation or cause a...
Recently the Obama administration, along with the Department of Labor, have proposed expanding the definition of spouse to allow legally married same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Family Military Leave Act. This means that if same-sex couples were married in a state that has...
On June 18, 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO cancelled the Washington Redskins' registrations for the "Redskins" trademarks on the grounds that the term "redskins" is disparaging of Native Americans. Hear Ken McLaughlin being interviewed on the John Kass and Lauren Cohn show on June 19, 2014 on WLS 890AM! What do you...
This is the third installment of a series discussing the options for non-citizen business investors to obtain Work Visas in the USA. The following are a list of the least desirable visa options a non-citizen may apply for in order to work for the company that he or she built: Temporary Visas (Less than one year duration) B-1:The B-1 visa...
This is the second installment of a series discussing the options for non-citizen business investors to obtain work visas for the USA. The following are a list of the most recommended visa options a non-citizen may apply for in order to work for the company he or she built: Temporary Visas (More than one year duration) E-2 (“Treaty Investor”):...