Week in Review

It’s been an interesting week on the wage and hour legal front. One of the big names in social networking, LinkedIn, made headlines this week when the U.S. Department of Labor announced a settlement of allegations that LinkedIn failed to properly record, account for, and pay certain employees for all of their hours worked. You can read the link below for lessons learned from this settlement. In other news, a federal judge ruled that critical federal government employees who worked during last year's government shutdown may be owed additional pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, because they were not paid on regularly scheduled payroll dates, but, rather, when the shutdown ended. Speaking of paydays, there’s also a link below to information on how a new company allows hourly workers to immediately access pay they have earned, without having to wait for their employer's standard pay cycle and without paying a fee. With all this news, it’s a good time to check your wage and hour practices to stay safe out there!

Technology and the Workplace
LinkedIn settles with feds, agrees to pay nearly $6M in FLSA 'off the clock' and overtime case (ABA Journal)
LinkedIn's $6M FLSA settlement provides a good lesson to employers (Ohio Employer's Law Blog)
Picture This:  Online Photos and Big Data (Socially Aware Blog)
Retailers Who Take Bitcoin Love It (Mashable)
Lyft's Plan to Make On-Demand Carpools the Everyday Way to Commute (WIRED)

Technology and the Law
Should 'essential' federal employees receive additional shutdown pay?  (The Washington Post)
More Than 17,000 Join Privacy Lawsuit Against Facebook (Yahoo)
Judge Rules That Microsoft Must Turn Over Data Stored in Ireland (NYTimes)
Facebook users dial 911 over social network outage (Fortune)
Russian Hackers Amass Over A Billion Internet Passwords (NYTimes)

There's an App for That
Startup Offers Payday Advances Without the Pesky Loan-Sharking (WIRED)
NASA Tests Google Glass Underseas to See How It Would Work in Space (Mashable)
'Google Glass for Your Windshield' Focuses Your Eyes on the Road (Mashable)
LinkedIn Revs Up 'Social Selling' With Sales Navigator (Mashable)
Timex enters smart watch category.  No phone needed.  (USA Today)