Seventy-five years ago, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was signed, initially covering only 20% of the workforce with regulations on child labor and minimum wage. Employers often face compliance issues, leading to common mistakes such as failing to pay for off-the-clock work, miscalculating overtime, and not adhering to child labor laws. Additionally, employers must consider both federal and state laws when ensuring compliance with wage and hour regulations.

1. Exactly 75 years ago,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed over 100 bills into law,
including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA intially covered only
about 20 percent of the workforce, setting standards for child labor, minimum
wage and a 44-hour maximum workweek. The FLSA has undergone several
changes since then, but one thing remains the same: employers still struggle with
compliance. Therefore, instead of providing a cake with 75 candles, we are paying
respect to the FLSA by pointing out 7.5 frequent mistakes employers make.
FAILING TO PAY FOR
TIME WORKED AWAY
FROM THE OFFICE
You must pay for all
hours worked.
Non-exempt employees
who check work-related emails after
hours are considered to be working
and should be paid as well. Consider a
policy that clearly sets out
expectations in these areas.
ALLOWING
EMPLOYEES TO WORK
EXTRA WITHOUT
COMPENSATION
Good employees will
often voluntarily arrive
early or stay late to make sure a task
gets done. The employer must pay
them for this time unless it puts a
stop to it and disciplines them
accordingly if they don’t.
IMPROPERLY
COMPUTING OVERTIME
We all know that overtime
is calculated at 1.5 times
the regular rate of pay. The
rate of pay includes shift
differentials, nondiscretionary bonuses,
commissions, on-call pay and other
incentive payments.
FAILING TO PAY FOR
COMPENSABLE
BREAKS
You don’t have to pay
workers for meal breaks
that are at least 30
minutes long, but they must be
completely releived from work. Also,
some time and attendance systems
automatically deduct time for meal
breaks, even when employees
perform duties. Finally, rest breaks of
5-20 minutes are compensable.
INADEQUATELY
TRACKING TIME FOR
NON-EXEMPT
EMPLOYEES
The DOL offers a free
timesheet mobile app for
employees to track their
time if the employer is doing a poor
job of it. This could be the so-called
Exhibit A in an FLSA complaint.
Consider an efficient and effective
time and attendance system.
NOT UNDERSTANDING
THE TRAVEL RULE
A non-exempt employee
traveling for work purposes
must be paid for travel
time during the normal
workday. The rationale is that the
employee is merely substituting travel
for regular work. You must pay for this
time even if travel occurs on a non-work
day (e.g., a Saturday or Sunday).
NOT FOLLOWING THE
CHILD LABOR RULES
Legions of teenagers find
summer jobs, but many
employers violate the clear
rules that are designed to
protect them from what is termed as
“oppressive child labor.” This includes
hazardous work, and permissible work
hours for those under the age of 16.
FORGETTING ABOUT
STATE LAWS
This is half an error because
it points to the fact that the
FLSA is not the only law in
town. Many states have
broader protections,
including overtime for
hours worked over eight
in a day and higher minimum wage.
copyright 2016