Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Craft & Sheppard, PLC | Attorneys at Law
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires an employer to pay an employee overtime compensation for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a single week, unless the employee is exempt from overtime wages. The FLSA also establishes minimum wage, recordkeeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.
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:
1. whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $500,000
(exclusive of excise taxes at the retail level that are separately stated); or
2. is engaged in the operation of a hospital, an institution primarily engaged in the care
of the sick, the aged, or the mentally ill who reside on the premises; a school for
mentally or physically disabled or gifted children; a preschool, an elementary or
secondary school, or an institution of higher education (whether operated for profit
or not for profit); or
3. is an activity of a public agency.
Any enterprise that was covered by FLSA on March 31, 1990, and that ceased to be covered because of the revised $500,000 test, continues to be subject to the overtime pay, child labor, and recordkeeping provisions of FLSA.
Employees of firms which are not covered enterprises under FLSA still may be subject to its minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor provisions if they are individually engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce, or in any closely-related process or occupation directly essential to such production. 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 babysitters are covered if:
1. their cash wages from one employer in calendar year 2007 are at least $1,500 (this calendar year threshold is adjusted by the Social Security Administration each year); or
2. they work a total of more than eight hours a week for one or more employers
3. Tipped employees are individuals engaged in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. The employer may consider tips as part of wages, but the employer must pay at least $2.13 an hour in direct wages.
4. 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 applicable minimum wage (see above) when direct wages and the tip credit allowance are combined. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Also, employees must retain all of their tips, except to the extent that they participate in a valid tip pooling or sharing arrangement.
If violations occur, you may be entitled to recover double your unpaid overtime wages and attorney fees.
Visit the United States Department of Labor website for more detailed information concerning the Fair Labor Standards Act. We can assist you in the prosecution of your claims and your attorney fees may be recoverable as well. Please call us today for a free initial consultation and meeting.
