A practical reference tool on wage-and-hour law
FLSA Compliance Guide
The FLSA Compliance Guide assures smooth sailing through the vortex!
The FLSA Compliance Guide saves busy human resources (HR) leaders time and angst in interpreting and complying with U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) requirements.
Why risk misinterpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? The labor laws are written by lawyers for lawyers, not for HR professionals. The FLSA Compliance Guide is a handy tool written in plain English. It makes it much easier to avoid potential wage and pay pitfalls that can jeopardize your career and business operations' success. Simple misclassifications can result in audits, fines, and hefty penalties.
FLSA employee classifications and rules about overtime pay are much trickier than many HR professionals think. Administrative exemptions, executive exemptions, and pay for independent contractors are also included.
HR pros sometimes believe their company has an FLSA exemption, but they must perform due diligence to ensure they could be in for a rude surprise with serious legal consequences. Ignorance is not an excuse; why take a chance when you can get simple answers to tricky questions?
Here are just a few of the many hazards you can avoid with the FLSA Compliance Guide:
Independent contractor snafus
You probably think the FLSA doesn't apply to independent contractors and that they aren't entitled to overtime pay. However, you need to take more into account than the independent contractor's primary duty. You could face a lawsuit if the independent contractor passes the economic reality test. Not only does the DOL's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) have a say in this issue, but the IRS also does.
Employee misclassifications
You might think it's easy to classify exempt and non-exempt employees. But if you misclassify even one employee as exempt whose salary should be based on an hourly rate and who should be receiving overtime pay, you could be in legal hot water. The job duties test determines if the work performed allows you to give executive, administrative, or professional exemptions.
Salary levels and salary basis
The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of an employee, a very well-paid oil industry worker who was misclassified as exempt. He was paid a handsome daily rate instead of a weekly regular salary. According to the Supreme Court, that was a big mistake. Because he wasn't paid on "a salary basis," he should have been classified as a non-exempt employee. Overtime pay requirements mean that the employer owes him overtime pay at a rate of $2,011.50 per hour!
Can your business afford a lawsuit like this one? They're more common than you might think!
What the FLSA Compliance Guide delivers:
And much, much more! Check out the details:
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Who's covered under the FLSA?
- Definitions of enterprises and interstate commerce
- Includes special coverage situations: successor employers, joint employers, managers as employers, independent contractors, volunteers, trainees, child labor, and much more.
Chapter 2. Exempt versus non-exempt employees: you'd better know the difference
- Who's not covered: trainees, blue-collar workers, first responders
- White-collar exemptions
- Tests for executive exemption, administrative exemption, outside sales exemption, computer professional exemption, highly paid employees' exemption, combination exemptions
- Checklists for analyzing jobs for exempt status
- The salary basis test
- Tying extra pay to hours worked
- Reducing exempts salary
- Salary/leave advances and final pay
- Altering exempt status – pay docking
- Partial day docking; disciplinary docking
- Effect of Improper deductions from salary
- Safe harbor for inadvertent pay deductions
Chapter 3. Understanding minimum wage regulations under the FLSA
- Defining minimum wages
- Calculating and paying minimum wages
- Facilities - Voluntary assignment of wages, loans, and advances
- Bonuses included as wages
- Deductions for uniforms and other items
- Disciplinary docking and minimum wages
Chapter 4. Time traps: correctly calculating hours worked under the FLSA
- Recognizing the portal-to-portal act
- Commuting time, Idle time, Employee running errands
- Fire and disaster drills
- Participation in government inspections/audits
- Meal breaks, rest breaks, and lactation breaks
- Clean-up and changing time
- Lectures, meetings, and training programs
- Medical attention
- Employees working from home
- Travel time, On-call time, Sleeping time, Waiting Time
- Work suffered or permitted
- Checklist for keeping track of FLSA hours
Chapter 5. Keeping track of overtime pay requirements under the FLSA
- Wages and overtime pay
- Employees who work at more than one rate
- When is overtime pay due?
- Averaging salary over a monthly or semimonthly period
- Averaging earnings for a period other than a week
- Bonuses, Call-back pay, Facilities as pay, Fringe benefits, Gifts
- On-pay call, Pay for hours not worked (idle time pay), Premium pay
- Holiday premiums, Payout for prizes and awards, Suggestion awards, Other types of pay, Stock options
- Flextime requirements, The 9/80 workweek plan, The time off for overtime plan
- Fixed salaries for fluctuating workweeks, Long workweeks, and overtime, Short workweeks and overtime (summer hours)
Appendices
A. All-states minimum wage chart
B. All-states chart on payday laws
C. All-states chart on record-keeping and record retention laws
D. All-states chart on the timing of final pay policies
Make your life less complicated!
Refrain from relying on fact sheets from the Wage and Hour Division (WHD)!
Their fact sheets are written by lawyers for lawyers, and the IRS sometimes disagrees with their guidance. The FLSA Compliance Guide is authored by a seasoned payroll and tax compliance expert who writes for business professionals.
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