Employment Law Attorneys Serving Tampa Bay and Other Areas
Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek.
Florida's minimum wage guarantee is more generous in its provisions than the FLSA. The current Florida minimum wage is $6.15. It is also governed by a general (4) four-year statute of limitations with a (5) five-year limitation period, both of which exceed the FLSA's limitation periods. Additionally, Florida law provides that individuals experiencing violations of this amendment may bring a class action pursuant to Fla.R.Civ.P. 1.220.
Wages required by FLSA are due on the regular payday for the pay period covered. Deductions made from wages for such items as cash or merchandise shortages, employer-required uniforms, and tools of the trade, are not legal to the extent that they reduce the wages of employees below the minimum rate required by FLSA or reduce the amount of overtime pay due under FLSA.
The FLSA contains some exemptions from these basic standards. Some apply to specific types of businesses; others apply to specific kinds of work. While FLSA does set basic minimum wage and overtime pay standards and regulates the employment of minors, there are a number of employment practices, which FLSA does not regulate.
For example, FLSA does not require :
- Vacation, holiday, severance, or sick pay;
- Meal or rest periods, holidays off, or vacations;
- Premium pay for weekend or holiday work;
- Pay raises or fringe benefits; and
- A discharge notice, reason for discharge, or immediate payment of final wages to terminated employees.
The FLSA does not provide wage payment or collection procedures for an employee's usual or promised wages or commissions in excess of those required by the FLSA. However, some states do have laws under which such claims (sometimes including fringe benefits) may be filed.
Also, FLSA does not limit the number of hours in a day or days in a week an employee may be required or scheduled to work if the employee is at least 16 years old. These matters are for agreement between the employer and the employees or their authorized representatives.
Who Is Covered?
All employees of certain enterprises having workers engaged in interstate commerce, producing goods for interstate commerce, or handling, selling, or otherwise working on goods or materials that have been moved in or produced for such commerce by any person are covered by FLSA .
A covered enterprise is the related activities performed through unified operation or common control by any person or persons for a common business purpose and --
- Whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $500,000 (exclusive of excise taxes at the retail level that are separately stated); or
- Is engaged in the operation of a hospital, an institution primarily engaged in the care of those who are physically or mentally ill or disabled or aged, and who reside on the premises, a school for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted, a preschool, an elementary or secondary school, or an institution of higher education (whether operated for profit or not for profit); or
- Is an activity of a public agency.
Tipped Employees
Tipped employees are those who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips.
The employer may consider tips as part of wages, but such a wage credit must not exceed 50 percent of the minimum wage. The employer who elects to use the tip credit provision must inform the employee in advance and must be able to show that the employee receives at least the minimum wage when direct wages and the tip credit allowance are combined. Also, employees must retain all of their tips, except to the extent that they participate in a valid tip pooling or sharing arrangement.
Employer-Furnished Facilities
The reasonable cost or fair value of board, lodging, or other facilities customarily furnished by the employer for the employee's benefit may be considered part of wages.
Subminimum Wage Provisions
The FLSA provides for the employment of certain individuals at wage rates below the statutory minimum. Such individuals include student-learners (vocational education students), as well as full-time students in retail or service establishments, agriculture, or institutions of higher education. Also included are individuals whose earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those related to age or injury, for the work to be performed. Employment at less than the minimum wage is provided for in order to prevent curtailment of opportunities for employment. Such employment is permitted only under certificates issued by Wage-Hour.
Training Wage Provisions
Under certain conditions, employers may pay a training wage of at least 85% of the applicable minimum wage, or $3.35 an hour, whichever is greater, for up to 90 days, to employees under age 20, except for migrant or seasonal agricultural workers and H-2A nonimmigrant agricultural workers performing work of a temporary or seasonal nature .
An employee who has been paid at the training wage for 90 days may be employed at the training wage for 90 additional days by a different employer, if that employer provides on-the-job training in accordance with rules issued by the Department of Labor. Employers are prohibited from displacing employees (or reducing their wages or benefits) in order to hire employees at the training wage. In addition, employers are prohibited from hiring employees at the training wage when other employees have been laid off in the previous six months from the positions to be filled at the training wage, or from substantially equivalent positions. The number of hours of work paid at the training wage cannot exceed 25% of all the hours worked by employees of an establishment in any month.
