{"id":18735,"date":"2016-02-04T22:36:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T03:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2016\/02\/business-report-obligations-under-fair-labor-standard-act.html"},"modified":"2017-11-08T13:37:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T18:37:52","slug":"business-report-obligations-under-fair-labor-standard-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2016\/02\/business-report-obligations-under-fair-labor-standard-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Obligations Under Fair Labor Standard Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"img-left\">\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"james marco c.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/02\/james20marco20c.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"230\" class=\"alignleft\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"img-caption\">\n<p>Jim Marco, president, Consultant of Saratoga<br \/>\nHuman Resources Solutions Inc.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>BY JIM MARCO<\/p>\n<p>The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the<br \/>\npiece of federal legislation that established<br \/>\nminimum wage and overtime requirements, and<br \/>\ndefined which employees are exempt from the<br \/>\nminimum wage and overtime provisions of the act,<br \/>\nand which employees need to receive overtime pay.<\/p>\n<p>The FLSA provides definitions under which employee<br \/>\ncan be exempt. These exemptions fall under<br \/>\ncertain categories such as executive exemption,<br \/>\nadministrative exemption, professional exemption,<br \/>\noutside sales exemption, and the computer<br \/>\nemployee exemption. Exempt employees are often<br \/>\nreferred to as salaried employees.<\/p>\n<p>In order to qualify for exempt status, employees<br \/>\nmust meet three critical criteria related to job duties,<br \/>\na minimum level of weekly pay, and they must<br \/>\nbe paid on a salaried basis, which is also defined<br \/>\nby the FLSA. Companies who pay all employees a<br \/>\nweekly salary, thinking they are avoiding overtime<br \/>\npayments, are taking a substantial risk. Both the<br \/>\nfederal and state departments of labor enforce<br \/>\nthese laws, although it is usually the state that you<br \/>\nwill be dealing with during an audit.<\/p>\n<p>This can result in back pay, for several years,<br \/>\nfines and other penalties. Your best defense is an<br \/>\naccurate and compliant job description, good job<br \/>\nanalysis, and a thorough documented review of<br \/>\nthe requirements.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nIn addition, federal law is the minimum standard,<br \/>\nthere are also state laws that generally place<br \/>\ngreater responsibilities on business than federal<br \/>\nlaw. For example, the federal minimum wage is<br \/>\n$7.25, while New York state, in most sectors, is<br \/>\nnow at $9 per hour. Employers in New York must<br \/>\npay the $9 rate, not the lower federal minimum.<\/p>\n<p>New York has other wage and hour laws such as<br \/>\nthe Wage Theft Prevention Act that also requires<br \/>\ncertain actions from employers.<\/p>\n<p>Time keeping is critical to being able to show<br \/>\ncompliance with overtime laws, so make sure you<br \/>\nhave an accurate timekeeping system.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, New York state requires employers to<br \/>\nprovide at least a 30-minute lunch break to employees<br \/>\nwho work more than six hours. This is<br \/>\nunpaid time where employees are allowed to use<br \/>\nthe time for their own benefit.<\/p>\n<p>They are not required to eat, they are required<br \/>\nto be relieved from duty. Eating at a desk while<br \/>\nanswering e-mail or picking up the phone is not<br \/>\ncompliant. To prove that you provide a lunch break,<br \/>\nmake employees punch in and punch out.<\/p>\n<p>Pay systems that automatically deduct 30 minutes<br \/>\nfrom a time card are suspect and often are<br \/>\ntargets of Department of Labor audits.<\/p>\n<p>These laws are complex, with many nuances, so<br \/>\nthe tips above are necessarily brief. Seek out expert<br \/>\nguidance if these laws become confusing, because<br \/>\na DOL audit is not a consulting visit.<\/p>\n<p><em>Marco is president and principal consultant of<br \/>\nSaratoga Human Resources Solutions Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Jim Marco, president, Consultant of Saratoga Human Resources Solutions Inc. BY JIM MARCO The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the piece of federal legislation that established minimum wage and overtime requirements, and defined which employees are exempt from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":25275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-reports","category-office-hr-employment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Business Report: Obligations Under Fair Labor Standard Act - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2016\/02\/business-report-obligations-under-fair-labor-standard-act\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Report: Obligations Under Fair Labor Standard Act - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jim Marco, president, Consultant of Saratoga Human Resources Solutions Inc. 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