Fair Labor Standards Act Presented by the Youpeng Fu D.J. Phillips

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Fair Labor Standards ActPresented by the
Youpeng Fu D.J.
Phillips
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What is FLSA?

• The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), aka the Wages
  and Hours bill
• Federal law passed in 1938
• Enforced by Department of Labor
• Definition- United States federal law that
  applies to employees engaged in interstate
  commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in
  commerce or in the production of goods for
  commerce, unless the employer can claim an
  exemption from coverage.

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Who Is Covered?

• Two types of coverage
• - Enterprise- if covered, all employees
  
• entitled to FLSA
  protections
• - Individual- even if the enterprise is
  not
• covered, individuals
  may
• be covered and
  entitled to
• FLSA protections

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Enterprise Coverage

• Enterprises requirement at least two
• employees,
• at least 500,000
  yr. in
• business
• Government Agencies, Hospitals, Schools, and
  Organizations that endows in Nursing or Medical
  Care for Residents

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Individual Coverage

• The FLSA also protects employees if their work
  regularly involves them in commerce between
  states ("interstate commerce"). This can include
  producing goods to be shipped out of state,
  regularly making telephone calls to persons
  located in other states, handling records of
  interstate transactions, traveling to other
  states for their jobs, and doing janitorial work
  in buildings where goods are produced for
  shipment outside the state. The FLSA also covers
  domestic service workers.

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Who May Not Be Covered?

• Small construction companies
• Small independently owned retail companies
• Small independently owned service companies

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History of FLSA

• Those Who Supported- in 1938, FLSA bill was
  passed with both Democratic and Republican
  support, and signed by President Franklin D.
  Roosevelt
• Those Who Benefited- FLSA protected the rights of
  workers and enforced fair play between management
  and labor

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History of FLSA (continued)

• Social environment- FLSA was postponed by wartime
  inflation of the 1940s, as well as The Great
  Depression. It was created as a means of economic
  recovery.
• Effects on Organization- Required to ensure a
  maximum number of jobs, which paid a minimum
  livable wage.

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Court Case of FLSA

• LONG ISLAND CARE AT HOME, LTD. Vs. COKE
• Important issue- the third party regulation is
  valid and binding.
• An agencys power to administer a congressionally
  created program necessarily requires the making
  of rules to fill any  gap  left, implicitly
  or explicitly, by Congress.

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Court Case of FLSA (continued)

• The regulation does not exceed DOLs delegated
  rulemaking authority.
• Although the literal language of the third-party
  regulation and the General Regulation,
  conflicts as to whether third-party-paid workers
  are included within the statutory exemption,
  several reasons compel the Court to agree with
  the DOLs position, set forth in an Advisory
  Memorandum explaining (and defending) the
  third-party regulation, that that regulation
  governs here.

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Effects of FLSA Upon Organizations

• Summary
• - Minimum Wage Overtime Standards
• - Overtime Pay
• - Recordkeeping
• - Youth Employment

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Minimum Wage Overtime Standards

• FLSA required employers engaged in the production
  of goods for commerce to pay their employees a
  minimum wage and required employers to pay
  overtime compensation to cover employees who work
  in excess of 40 hours per workweek

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Overtime Pay

• Covered, non- exempt employees must receive one
  and one- half times the regular rate of pay for
  all hours worked over forty in a workweek

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Overtime Pay Policy

• One and one- half times the regular hourly wage
• Employer cannot pay lower rate for overtime

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Examples of non- compensable time

• Meal periods of half an hour or longer when
  completely relieved of duty
• Commuting time from home to work
• Jury duty for non- exempt

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Recordkeeping

• The FLSA requires that all employers subject to
  any provision of the Act make, keep, and preserve
  certain records.
• Every covered employer must keep certain records
  for each non- exempt worker

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Recordkeeping Guidelines

• Employers are required to keep certain records
  for each worker. The records must contain the
  following information
• Employee's full name and social security number.
• Address, including zip code.
• Birth date, if younger than 19.
• Sex and occupation.
• Time and day of week when employee's workweek
  begins.
• Hours worked each day.
• Total hours worked each workweek.
• Basis on which employee's wages are paid (i.e.,
  amount per hour, amount per week, amount per item
  produced)
• Regular hourly pay rate.
• Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings.
• Total overtime earnings for the workweek.
• All additions to or deductions from the
  employee's wages.
• Total wages paid each pay period.
• Date of payment and the pay period covered by the
  payment.

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Youth Employment

• Federal youth employment rules set both hours and
  occupational standards for youth

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Youth EmploymentGuidelines

• Youths 18 years or older may perform any job,
  whether hazardous or not, for unlimited hours
• Youths 16 and 17 years old may perform any
  nonhazardous job, for unlimited hours and
• Youths 14 and 15 years old may work outside
  school hours in various nonmanufacturing,
  nonmining, nonhazardous jobs under the following
  conditions no more than 3 hours on a school day,
  18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a nonschool
  day, or 40 hours in a nonschool week. Also, work
  may not begin before 7 a.m., nor end after 7
  p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, when
  evening hours are extended to 9 p.m. Under a
  special provision, youths 14 and 15 years old
  enrolled in an approved Work Experience and
  Career Exploration Program may be employed for up
  to 23 hours in school weeks and 3 hours on school
  days.

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Implications and Recommended Policies
Procedures For Human Resource Managers

• Implication- HRM must pay for employees break,
  if one require employees to work during lunch.
• Recommendation- HRM can require employees to
  remain on- site during lunch periods without
  having to pay them.

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Cont

• Implication- Sloppiness in recordkeeping will
  only hurt the HRM. This case makes it very clear
  that courts will err in favor of employees and
  rely on the workers recollections or the
  Department of Labors calculations regarding what
  should be paid time if the employer does not keep
  adequate records
• Recommendation- the importance of appropriately
  categorizing what time should be considered paid
  working time to prevent these types of violations.

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Questions?