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FLSA

Fair Labor Standards Act: The basics of compliance

07/01/2007

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets strict rules for how you pay employees, including setting a minimum wage and overtime. The basic concept is straightforward …

Paying exempt employees for travel time

07/01/2007

Q. We sometimes send exempt employees to conferences. Do we have to pay for travel time? Can we voluntarily pay them extra if the travel time extends into the evening or weekend, or will that destroy their exempt status?

Overtime for drive to remote worksite?

07/01/2007

Q. We required three hourly employees to drive 15 hours to an out-of-state warehouse to do finishing work and only paid them for eight hours of straight time. They worked a 40 hour week, made the drive on a Saturday, worked in the warehouse Sunday through Wednesday, then made the 15-hour return drive on Thursday and reported to work on Friday. Someone at the Labor Department told me that since the drive extended past their regular workday, we were required to pay for 15 hours, and it probably should have been overtime. Is that correct?

Sound policy triggers suit anyway

07/01/2007

The Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg was following a special “8 and 80” pay plan permitted for health care providers under Section 7j of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when it was slapped with an overtime lawsuit anyway …

Some computer jobs exempt from EPA/FLSA protection

07/01/2007

Because of a quirk in the way the Equal Pay Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act have been amended over the years, female workers classified as exempt computer professionals under the FLSA can’t sue their employers for EPA violations …

‘Spiffs’ don’t count when establishing overtime exemption

07/01/2007

If you have an incentive system in which employees who sell a particular item get an additional set payment—commonly called a “spiff”—on top of other payments for selling the item, you can’t count the spiff as part of the commission …

You don’t necessarily have to pay for pre-Work activities

07/01/2007

Employers have struggled to figure out exactly when they must pay employees for pre-work activities ever since the U. S. Supreme Court decided that the Fair Labor Standards Act requires paying workers for the time they spend putting on protective clothing. It’s not enough to say that the time must be of benefit to the employer …

Qualify for professional exemption? Check job, not degree

07/01/2007

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employees who work more than 40 hours a week receive overtime for the extra hours. But many jobs and positions are exempt from FLSA OT rules …

Houston firm pays $256,000 to settle overtime dispute

07/01/2007

BJ Chemical Services in Houston recently paid $256,000 in back wages to 56 workers following a U.S. Labor Department investigation …

Supreme Court affirms that FLSA doesn’t apply to all employees

06/12/2007

A Supreme Court case narrowly focused on FLSA protections for home health care workers may signal a broader trend worth watching. Is a conservative high court now more inclined to defer to federal agency interpretations of the law even when those interpretations limit employee rights? A new EEOC age discrimination case that could reach the Supreme Court might tell the tale.