The Blog Single

Wage and Hour Compliance Laws and Regulations

The standard for analyzing worker misclassification may change with legislative changes, and currently is different depending upon whether one’s work is within the construction industry or not. If they are hired to complete a particular job, as opposed to being hired to perform ongoing services. A worker employed as a private household worker who lives on the premises of the employer. The living wage rate can be increased annually based on any increase in the Consumer Price Index for the Washington, D.C. Alex shows up for work on Wednesday and is told the store only needs him to work for two hours. Between $161 (Greta’s minimum wage) and $53.50 (Greta’s actual wage) is $107.50. Each September, L&I will use the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (referred to as CPI-W) from the U.S.

Your job is classified as an Executive position if your full-time responsibility is management of two or more employees. You must spend no more then 20% of your time doing other activities (or 40% in a retail environment), and your job should be a salaried position. Executives, administrators, and other professionals earning at least $455 per week do not have to be paid overtime under Section 13 of the Fair Labor Standards Act. An employee who is paid on a salary basis must earn at least $684 per week (equivalent to $35,568 per year). “Smoking breaks” – smoking breaks are not required under Texas or federal law, are in the same category as rest breaks , and may be controlled in any way with appropriate policies. You must pay your employees the greater of your state’s hourly…

Is “comp time” legal?

Mileage payments for the employee’s use of a personally owned vehicle are reimbursements, not compensation for work. A government employer may choose to use a 40 hour work week or a 7 system at its option, and may use a 7 system for FLSA compliance purposes even if it actually pays its employees on the basis of 40 hour work weeks. To use a 7 system for FLSA purposes requires only that the employer establish such a system , and that the affected employees actually work on a schedule which repeats and recurs on some multiple of between 7 and 28 days. Which particular 7 threshold applies depends mostly on what the employees’ schedule is. For 7 systems, pay computations mostly follow the regular FLSA rules, with the “work period” being substituted for the normal “work week.”

Fair wage law, an employer does not have to pay extra for weekend, holiday, or night work. https://www.bookstime.com/ A 2018 law madechanges to the minimum wage, and Sunday and holiday premium pay.

All training time is work time if it occurs during an employee’s regular shift, or if it is required by the employer. All time spent by an employee performing activities which are job-related is potentially “work time.” This includes the employee’s regular “on the clock” work time, plus “off the clock” time spent performing job-related activities .

Download wage and hour posters for workplaces

Additional state labor laws in California also entitle any employee who works for more then 15 hours in a single day to be paid at least one and a half times their normal rate for all hours worked over the overtime limit. Most hourly employees in California are entitled to a special overtime pay rate for any hours worked over a total of 40 in a single work week .

However, because Alex is entitled to a minimum daily wage, the employer must pay him for at least 4 hours of work. For example, if you are required to spend time cleaning up your workstation after your official work shift ends, you must be paid for the time spent cleaning up. Whether the worker’s provided service is part of the employer’s regular business. Salaried exempt employees have to earn at least the state thresholds because they are higher than the federal threshold.

Are salaried workers covered by overtime rules?

However, the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements below do NOT apply toexempt employees, farmworkers, or public sector employees, as defined by both federal and state laws. The FLSA does not require that nonexempt employees be paid hourly. Salaried nonexempt employees are still entitled to FLSA overtime pay if, when and to the extent that they actually work more than 40 hours in a work week. FLSA overtime pay is time and one-half of the employee’s regular rate of pay.

Department of Labor has outlined specific requirements that must be met in order to qualify for exemption. If an employer-employee relationship exists, the FLSA will apply only if there is individual coverage or if there is enterprise coverage.

These laws contain many exceptions, so not all employees are entitled to overtime. Employees who are eligible for overtime are called “nonexempt” employees, and those who are not eligible for overtime are called “exempt” employees. Shift differentials – defined as higher hourly pay for second or third shifts, as opposed to the normal hourly rate given to workers on the daytime shift – as with “premium pay” above, this is a function of supply and demand. Is it legal to flex an employee´s hours within one workweek to keep the employee under 40 hours? For instance, an employee who works nine hours per day for four work days may be scheduled for only four hours on the fifth day of the week to avoid overtime. An employer may dictate an employee’s work schedule and hours.

Overtime is based on hours actually worked during a given work week. It depends on how the employer structures the 10% production bonus of the employee’s salary. The tip-producing work of a tipped employee who both prepares and serves food to customers, such as a counterperson, includes preparing and serving food. Done for an existing customer.Duties that do not generate tips and are not directly related to duties that generate tips include painting, taking inventory of backroom supplies, ordering supplies, scheduling, cleaning bathrooms. The Hours Worked Advisor provides information to help determine which hours spent in work-related activities are considered FLSA “hours worked” and therefore must be paid. The special salary levels for workers in the U.S. territories and the motion picture industry will be revised.

Underpayment/Non-payment of Wages

FLSA overtime pay is time and one-half the employee’s “regular rate” of pay. Therefore, to compute FLSA overtime pay due requires knowing what the regular rate is. In most cases, this is a straightforward inquiry, but in some situations the FLSA employs some peculiar arithmetic used to determine the regular rate. Sometimes employers seek to avoid overtime by granting employees “compensatory time” in lieu of cash for overtime hours worked, or “averaging hours” from work period to work period, or similar gimmicks.

• The following examples illustrate work that is not part of the tipped occupationbecause the work does not provide service to customers for which tipped employees receive tips, and does not directly support tip-producing work.
• Of course, for many employers this can be a daunting administrative task, and it may be questioned whether the cost of performing these computations will exceed the value of the exercise.
• Please note, the variable production bonus affects the regular rate of the 4th week because that is the week the bonus is paid.
• Federal law allow employers to pay a lower minimum wage to employees under twenty years of age.
• Alex shows up for work on Wednesday and is told the store only needs him to work for two hours.

In addition, an employee may file a private suit to recover back pay or unpaid overtime, an equal amount as liquidated damages, plus attorney’s fees and court costs. A workweek is defined as any consecutive seven-day period starting with the same calendar day and hour each week. A workweek is a fixed and recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive twenty-four hour periods, and is typically established by the employer. Hours worked in two or more workweeks shall not be averaged for computation of overtime. For crop farmers hiring non-family members, the primary exception is number 1, that is, the farmer employed less than 500 man-days of non-family employees during any calendar quarter of the preceding calendar year. However, employers must maintain adequate records to determine and demonstrate their eligibility for this exemption.

Workweek Definition and Overtime

Andrew Martins has written more than 300 articles for business.com and Business News Daily focused on the tools and services that small businesses and entrepreneurs need to succeed. Andrew writes about office hardware such as digital copiers, multifunctional printers and wide format printers, as well as critical technology services like live chat and online fax. Andrew has a long history in publishing, having been named a four-time New Jersey Press Award winner. The duties that make an employee exempt include managing at least two other employees and having the authority to hire or fire employees. You can find the full list of exempt duties on the Department of Labor’s website. Compensatory time is earned at 1.5 hours for each hour worked over 40. Leave time taken does not count as time worked when calculating overtime.

TheNew York Department of Laborwebsite may have additional specific information on wage laws in the state. TheNew Mexico Department of Workforce Solutionswebsite may have additional specific information on wage laws in the state. TheNew Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Developmentwebsite may have additional specific information on wage laws in the state. TheMassachusetts Executive Office of Labor & Workforce Developmentwebsite may have additional specific information on wage laws in the Commonwealth.

An employer may not require an employee to work more than 40 hours in any one week unless 1 1/2 times the regular hourly rate is paid for all hours actually worked in excess of 40 hours in that week. Can my employer offer me “comp” time off instead of paying overtime?

Visit our attorney directory to find a lawyer near you who can help. Creative professional, in which an employee’s primary duties involve invention, imagination, originality, or talent in a field of creative or artistic endeavor. The Child Labor Rules Advisor answers questions about the FLSA’s youth employment provisions, including at what age young people can work and the jobs they can perform. While we take all precautions to ensure that the data on this site is correct and up-to-date, we cannot be held liable for the accuracy of the labor law data we present. It is a violation of the FLSA to fire or to take any other adverse action against an employee for making a formal or informal complaint about an FLSA violation, or for participating in a legal proceeding under the FLSA. An individual under the age of 18 who is employed as a com detasseler (Minn. Stat. §177.23-).

For these employees, the FLSA permits alternatives to the standard 40 hour per work week FLSA overtime threshold. If your job is eligible for overtime protection under California and Federal overtime law as described above, your employer is required by law to pay you an overtime premium for all qualifying overtime hours worked. If your employer owes you overtime pay, a Department of Labor office in California will work with you to ensure you receive your fair wages for all hours worked. Any work in excess of eight hours in one workday, any work in excess of 40 hours in one workwee,k and the first eight hours worked on the seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be paid at the rate of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. Any work in excess of 12 hours in one day and any work in excess of eight hours on any seventh day of a workweek shall be paid no less than twice the regular rate of pay.

Employees Who Earn Tips

For instance, if you work nine hours per day for four work days, you may be scheduled for only four hours on the fifth day of the week to avoid overtime. How is overtime calculated when employees work at different rates of pay in the same Minimum Wage and Overtime Pay workweek? As a small business owner, you do not want to run afoul of the FSLA’s overtime rules. Not only does it open you up to potential lawsuits from current and former employees, but you could also be liable for the unpaid overtime.

Is it correct to pay overtime when the employee works more than 80 hours in the two-week pay period? Your pay periods are irrelevant to the overtime calculation. Pay periods may be established for any period not exceeding 35 days, but overtime must be calculated based on a recurring, seven-day workweek. If a workweek overlaps two pay periods, pay any overtime due for that workweek at the end of the second pay period . For example, if payday is on the 15th and the workweek ends on the 17th, the amount of overtime will not be known for that workweek until the following payday. In other words, pay the overtime on the 30th — the regular payday for the period in which the workweek ends.

Jobs that Pay

Worker misclassification is the practice of incorrectly categorizing workers as independent contractors rather than employees. This is a serious problem because it deprives workers of many of the basic protections of employment, including the minimum wage, overtime pay protection, paid sick days, workers’ compensation coverage, unemployment insurance, and more. When employers misclassify their workers, they shift these costs onto the workers themselves.

• The amount of time must be estimated after consideration of “all pertinent facts.”
• I confidently recommend Greg to anyone with employment law issues.
• TheNorth Dakota Department of Laborwebsite may have additional specific information on wage laws in the state.
• Can my employer offer me “comp” time off instead of paying overtime?
• While you don’t have to offer holiday pay, it’s a great way to…
• I would secure his services with any case in the future.
• Exceptions apply to an employee working pursuant to an alternative workweek adopted pursuant to applicable Labor Code sections and for time spent commuting.

In some unusual situations “non-sworn” EMS employees may possibly qualify for 7 “law enforcement” pay plans. Thus, under the FLSA overtime rules, “nothing happens” unless and until a nonexempt employee has actually worked more than 40 hours in a work week. Stated another way, if an employee’s total hours actually worked in a work week are not more than 40, the FLSA overtime rules are not triggered at all.

Which Employees Are Entitled to Overtime

Your regular rate may not be less than the minimum wage. Using the time-and-a-half rule of thumb, you’d calculate overtime pay by multiplying an employee’s hourly rate by 1.5 and then multiplying the result by the number of overtime hours they worked.