Relying on recent actual wage data is consistent with the Department’s approach in prior rulemakings, and results in a standard salary level of $684 per week ($35,568 for a full-year worker). In general, the FLSA does not require breaks or meal periods be given to workers. However, all employers covered by the FLSA must comply with the Act’s break time for nursing mothers provision.
Employees whom the law defines as « administrative, executive, or professional » need not be paid overtime. Generally, your business is covered by the FLSA if you have $500,000 or more in annual sales. Even if your business is smaller, however, you must pay overtime if your employees work in what Congress calls « interstate commerce »—that is, they conduct business between states. This includes more than you might think, including making phone calls to or from another state, sending mail out of state, or handling goods that have come from, or will go to, another state. In this article we’ll explain how overtime pay is calculated and which employees are entitled to overtime.
Is Overtime More Than 8 Hours of Work in a Day?
Certain employees are not subject to either the salary basis or salary level tests (for example, doctors and lawyers). The Department’s regulations also provide an exemption for certain highly compensated employees (HCEs) who earn above a higher total annual compensation level ($107,432 under this final rule) and satisfy a minimal duties test. Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. The Act does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, as such. An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day.
- It can start on any day, and different workers can have different established workweeks, but it can’t change unless the change is permanent.
- • Outsides salespersons, customarily spending more than half their time away from the employer’s place of business, are exempt.
- Prevailing wage laws, including those related to government-funded projects, often require employers to pay a higher rate, known as the overtime prevailing wage, for hours worked beyond the standard workweek.
- The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or holidays (Federal or otherwise).
- Please consult with an attorney or financial professional for advice.
The way the employer describes pay, e.g., annual salary, hourly, weekly, etc., does not affect FLSA exempt vs. non-exempt status. While all jobs can be non-exempt (subject to FLSA overtime rules) by employer decree, only specific jobs can be made exempt based on rules in the law. State laws introduce a new level of complication when dealing with overtime, especially for companies that operate in multiple states and those that work on state or federal public works projects. They determine its calculation and specify who qualifies through their own set of labor laws and definitions. In cases where an employee is subject to both the state and federal overtime laws, the employee is entitled to overtime according to the higher standard (i.e., the standard that will provide the higher overtime pay).
Which Employees are Exempt From Overtime?
Generally, if an employer docks an employee’s pay (for leaving work early to attend a doctor’s appointment or not meeting a sales target, for example), then the employee is not paid on a salary basis and is entitled to overtime. In anticipation of a significant increase, the administration had been heavily lobbied by both industry groups and labor unions. The rule, which would make workers earning up to $55,000 a year eligible for overtime, is intended to reverse four decades of reducing the number of workers qualified to earn overtime pay. As Capital & Main reported in a series of stories last year, overtime pay has steadily eroded, so that the percentage of workers eligible for overtime is now a fraction of what it was in the 1970s. Pay raises are generally a matter of agreement between an employer and employee (or the employee’s representative). Pay raises to amounts above the Federal minimum wage are not required by the FLSA.
For instance, in some states, overtime kicks in after eight hours have been worked in a single day while in others it is after twelve hours or after 40 hours have been worked in a workweek. Additionally, handling overtime and fringe benefits for prevailing wage projects poses an issue. For employers to credit nondiscretionary bonuses wage earners are eligible for overtime after 40 hours per week worked and incentive payments (including commissions) toward a portion of the standard salary level test, such payments must be paid on an annual or more frequent basis. In the NPRM, the Department proposed to inflate the salary level to reflect anticipated wage growth to January 2020, the final rule’s estimated effective date.
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