WHAT IS THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT?
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets minimum wage and overtime pay standards as well as recordkeeping and child labor standards for most private and public employment.
The overtime provisions of the FLSA require employers of covered employees who are not otherwise exempt to pay the employees not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek.
The minimum wage provisions of the FLSA require employers of covered employees who are not otherwise exempt to pay employees a minimum wage. In Florida, the current minimum wage is $6.40 per hour. Employers may pay employees on a piece-rate basis and, under some circumstances, may consider tips as part of wages. Tipped employees must receive a direct hourly wage of $3.38 and their total wage payment must exceed $6.40 per hour.
Salaried Employees: A salary, by itself, does not exempt employees from the minimum wage or from overtime. Whether employees are exempt from minimum wage and overtime depends on their job duties and responsibilities as well as the salary paid. Often, salaried employees do not meet all the requirements specified by the regulations to be considered as exempt from overtime pay.
The FLSA provides that employees who are successful in suing for unpaid wages are generally entitled to two times the amount originally owed and the attorneys’ fees associated with brining suit.
Typical Violations
- Improper classification of employees as exempt.
- Failure to record all hours actually worked to include time spent before or after the shift.
- Shorting of hours by using terms such as down time, rain delay, or mandatory break.
- Failure to compensate for meal breaks where the employee is not completely relieved of all duties to enjoy uninterrupted time for the meal.
- “Banking” of overtime hours or payment of overtime in the form of “comp time”.
- Failure to combine the hours worked for overtime purposes by an employee in more than one job classification for the same employer within the same workweek.
- Failure to segregate and pay overtime hours on a workweek basis when employees are paid on a bi-weekly or semi-monthly basis.
- Failure to pay for travel from shop to work-site and back.
- Deductions made from employees’ wages for such items as cash or merchandise shortages, required uniforms, and tools of the trade are not legal to the extent that they reduce the wages below the statutory minimum wage or reduce the amount of overtime pay.
Kwall, Showers, & Barack, P.A.
133 North Ft. Harrison Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33755
(727) 441-4947
(813) 855-6098
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The law firm of Kwall, Showers, & Barack, P.A. represents clients with concerns in employment law, administrative law, and criminal matters throughout the Tampa Bay area including the communities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, and Pinellas Park.
Pinellas County—Hillsborough County—Pasco County—Manatee County—Hernando County
