By Eric B. Meyer

Unfortunately, I did not win last night’s Powerball jackpot. Thus, today, you get a substantive post about employment law, rather than a terse, “Thanks for reading, suckers!” send off.

Oh, but you’re still my suckers. I say that with peace and love.

But, here’s something to think about: Workplace class actions are booming!

Today, for the myriad retweets and mentions that they give me on Twitter, I want to give a timely shout out to my friends at Seyfarth Shaw’s Workplace Class Action Blog and share with all of you suckers that their 2016 Workplace Class Action Report is now available.

Five wage and hour trends for 2016

Honestly, I was too lazy to read the whole report. Fortunately, Sefarth Shaw has highlighted five (5) key trends, which I’ve summarized below and, at times, liberally copied:

Consider also that, by as early as mid-2016, the Labor Department will raise the minimum weekly salary to qualify for an exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act from $455 a week ($23,660 per year) to $970 a week ($50,440 a year). There could also be additional changes to the exemption rules.

Act before your company goes boom (in a bad way)

Sure, you could wait until the Labor Department acts before you become make sure that your company’s house is in order. Or, you could re-read numbers 1-5 above and recognize that the plaintiffs bar isn’t waiting for the wage-and-hour cake to be iced before bringing dem lawsuits. Besides, any changes to the exemptions test won’t bear big fruit (i.e., big unpaid overtime and liquidated damages) for a year or so after the new rules take effect.

What I’m saying is this: print out this post, roll it up, go smack your decisionmakers in the head with it (not hard enough to cause a workplace injury; but with enough mmph to get their attention), and get cracking on an internal wage and hour audit.

Better you (and consider using outside counsel to help you) find those mistakes — and there will be mistakes, trust me — than learn about them when you’re served with a federal lawsuit.

This was originally published on Eric B. Meyer’s blog, The Employer Handbook.