Complete Home & Office Legal Guide/Complete Home and Office Legal Guide (Chestnut) (1993).ISO/tut/labor.stb

Text File | 1993-08-01 | 23KB | 532 lines

/* The following is the full text of the U.S. Labor Dept.
Publication for Employees on their rights under minimum
wage. */

Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage,
overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor standards affecting
more than 73 million full-time and part-time workers in the
private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments.

The Wage and Hour Division (Wage-Hour) administers and enforces
FLSA with respect to private employment, State and local
government employment, and Federal employees of the Library of
Congress, U.S. Postal Service, Postal Rate Commission, and the
Tennessee Valley Authority.  The Office of Personnel Management
is responsible for enforcement with regard to all other Federal
employees.

Special rules apply to State and local government employment
involving fire protection and law enforcement activities,
volunteer services, and compensatory time off in lieu of cash
overtime pay.

Basic Wage Standards

Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not
less than $3.35 an hour and overtime pay at a rate of not less
than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay after 40
hours of work in a workweek.

Wages required by FLSA are due on the regular pay day for the pay
period covered.  Deductions made from wages for such items as
cash or merchandise shortages, employer-required uniforms, and
tools of the trade, are not legal to the extent that they reduce
the wages of employees below the minimum rate required by FLSA or
reduce the amount of overtime pay due under FLSA.

The FLSA contains some exemptions from these basic standards.
Some apply to specific types of businesses; others apply to
specific kinds of work.

While FLSA does set basic minimum wage and overtime pay standards
and regulates the employment of minors, there are a number of
employment practices which FLSA does not regulate.

For example, FLSA does not require:

(1) vacation, holiday, severance, or sick pay;

(2) meal or rest periods, holidays off, or vacations;

(3) premium pay for weekend or holiday work;

(4) pay raises or fringe benefits;

(5) a discharge notice, reason for discharge, or immediate pay-
    ment of final wages to terminated employees; and,

(6) Any limit on the number of hours of work for persons 16 years
    of age an over.

These matters are for agreement between the employer and the
employees or their authorized representatives.

Who is Covered?

All employees of certain enterprises having workers engaged in
interstate commerce, producing goods for interstate commerce, or
handling, selling, or otherwise working on goods or materials
that have been moved in or produced for such commerce by any
person are covered by FLSA.

A covered enterprise is the related activities performed through
unified operation or common control by any person or persons for
a common business purpose and is -

(1) engaged in laundering or cleaning or repairing of clothing or
    fabrics; or

(2) engaged in the business of construction or reconstruction; or

(3) engaged in the operation of a hospital, an institution
    primarily engaged in the care of the sick, the aged, or the
    mentally ill or defective who reside on the premises, a
    school for mentally or physically handicapped or gifted
    children, a preschool, an elementary or secondary school, or
    an institution or higher education (whether public or private
    or operated for profit or not for profit); or

(4) comprised exclusively of one or more retail or service
    establishments (as defined in FLSA) whose annual gross volume
    of sales made or business done is not less than $362,500; or

(5) any other type of enterprise having an annual gross volume of
    sales made or business done of not less than $250,000; or

(6) an activity of a public agency.

The dollar volume standard mentioned above in (4) and (5)
excludes excise taxes at the retail level which are separately
stated.

Employees of firms which are not covered enterprises under FLSA
may still be subject to its minimum wage, overtime pay, and child
labor provisions if they are individually engaged in interstate
commerce.  Such employees include those who:  work in
communications or transportation; regularly use the mails;
telephones, or telegraph for interstate communication, or keep
records of interstate transactions; handle, ship, or receive
goods moving in interstate commerce; regularly cross State lines
in the course of employment; or work for independent employers
who contract to do clerical, custodial, maintenance, or other
work for firms engaged in interstate commerce or in the
production of goods for interstate commerce.

Domestic service workers such as day workers, housekeepers,
chauffeurs, cooks, or full-time baby sitters are covered if they
(1) receive at least $50 in cash wages in a calendar quarter from
their employers, or (2) work a total of more than 8 hours a week
for one or more employers.

Tipped Employees

Tipped employees are those who customarily and regularly receive
more than $30 a month in tips.

The employer may consider tips as part of wages, but such a wage
credit must not exceed 40 percent of the minimum wage.

The employer who elects to use the tip credit provision must
inform the employee in advance and must be able to show that the
employee receives at least the minimum wage when direct wages and
the tip credit allowance are combined.  Also, employees must
retain all of their tips, except to the extent that they
participate in a valid tip pooling or sharing arrangement.

Employer-Furnished Facilities

The reasonable cost or fair value of board, lodging, and other
facilities customarily furnished by the employer for the
employee's benefit may be considered part of wages.

Subminimum Wage Provisions

The FLSA provides for the employment of certain individuals at
wage rates below the statutory minimum.  Such individuals include
student-learners (vocational education students), as well as
full-time students in retail or service establishments,
agriculture, or institutions of higher education.  Also included
are individuals whose earning or productive capacity is impaired
by age or physical or mental deficiency or injury.  Employment at
less than the minimum wage is provided in order to prevent the
curtailment of opportunities for employment.  Such employment is
permitted only under certificates issued by Wage-Hour.

Exemptions

Some employees are excluded from the overtime pay provisions or
both the minimum wage and overtime pay provisions by specific
exemptions.

Because exemptions are generally narrowly defined under FLSA, an
employer should carefully check the exact terms and conditions
for each.  Detailed information is available from local Wage-Hour
offices.  Following are examples which are illustrative but do
not spell out the conditions for each exemption.

Exemptions from Both Minimum Wage and Overtime Pay

(1)  Executive, administrative, and professional employees
     (including teachers and academic administrative personnel in
     elementary and secondary schools), and outside sales persons
     (as defined in Department of Labor regulations);

(2)  Employees of certain individually owned and operated small
     retail or service establishments not part of a covered
     enterprise;

(3)  Employees of certain seasonal amusement or recreational
     establishments, employees of certain small newspapers,
     switchboard operators of small telephone companies, seamen
     employed on foreign vessels, and employees engaged in
     fishing operations;

(4)  Farm workers employed by anyone who used no more than 500
     "man-days" of farm labor in the calendar quarter of the
     preceding calendar year.

(5)  Casual babysitters and persons employed as companions to the
     elderly or infirm.

Exemptions