Serving Tampa and Other Areas: Employment Law Attorneys
Some employees are excluded from the overtime pay provisions or both the minimum wage and overtime pay provisions by specific exemptions. Because exemptions are generally narrowly defined under FLSA, an employer should carefully check the exact terms and conditions for each. Following are examples which are illustrative but do not spell out the conditions for each exemption.
Exemptions From Both Minimum Wage And Overtime Pay
- Executive, administrative, and professional employees (including teachers and academic administrative personnel in elementary and secondary schools), outside sales persons, and persons in certain computer-related occupations (as defined in Department of Labor regulations);
- Employees of certain seasonal amusement or recreational establishments, employees of certain small newspapers, switchboard operators of small telephone companies, seamen employed on foreign vessels, and employees engaged in fishing operations;
- Farm workers employed by anyone who used no more than 500 "man-days" of farm labor in any calendar quarter of the preceding calendar year;
- Casual babysitters and persons employed as companions to the elderly or infirm.
Exemptions From Overtime Pay Provisions Only
- Certain highly-paid commissioned employees of retail or service establishments; auto, truck, trailer, farm implement, boat, or aircraft sales workers, or parts-clerks and mechanics servicing autos, trucks, or farm implements, and who are employed by non-manufacturing establishments primarily engaged in selling these items to ultimate purchasers;
- Employees of railroads and air carriers, taxi drivers, certain employees of motor carriers, seamen on American vessels, and local delivery employees paid on approved trip rate plans;
- Announcers, news editors, and chief engineers of certain non-metropolitan broadcasting stations;
- Domestic service workers residing in the employers' residences;
- Employees of motion picture theaters; and
- Farmworkers.
Partial Exemptions From Overtime Pay
- Partial overtime pay exemptions apply to employees engaged in certain operations on agricultural commodities and employees of certain bulk petroleum distributors.
- Hospitals and residential care establishments may adopt, by agreement with their employees, a 14-day work period in lieu of the usual 7-day workweek, if the employees are paid at least time and one-half their regular rates for hours worked over 8 in a day or 80 in a 14-day work period, whichever is the greater number of overtime hours.
- Employees who lack a high school diploma, or who have not attained the educational level of the 8th grade, can be required to spend up to 10 hours in a workweek engaged in remedial reading or training in other basic skills without receiving time and one-half overtime pay for these hours. However, the employees must receive their normal wages for hours spent in such training and the training must not be job specific.
Child Labor Provisions
The FLSA child labor provisions are designed to protect the educational opportunities of minors and prohibit their employment in jobs and under conditions detrimental to their health or well-being. The provisions include restrictions on hours of work for minors under 16 and lists of hazardous occupations orders for both farm and non-farm jobs declared by the Secretary of Labor as being too dangerous for minors to perform.
Recordkeeping
The FLSA requires employers to keep records on wages, hours, and other items, as specified in Department of Labor recordkeeping regulations. Most of the information is of the kind generally maintained by employers in ordinary business practice and in compliance with other laws and regulations. The records do not have to be kept in any particular form and time clocks need not be used.
With respect to an employee subject to both minimum wage and overtime pay provisions; the following records must be kept:
- personal information, including employee's name, home address, occupation, sex, and birth date (if under 19 years of age);
- hour and day when workweek begins;
- total hours worked each workday and each workweek;
- total daily or weekly straight-time earnings;
- regular hourly pay rate for any week when overtime is worked;
- total overtime pay for the workweek;
- deductions from or additions to wages;
- total wages paid each pay period; and
- date of payment and pay period covered.
Records required for exempt employees differ from those for nonexempt workers, and special information is required for homeworkers, for employees working under uncommon pay arrangements, for employees to whom lodging or other facilities are furnished, or for employees receiving remedial education.
Terms Used in FLSA
Workweek -- A workweek is a period of 168 hours during 7 consecutive 24-hour periods. It may begin on any day of the week and any hour of the day established by the employer. Generally, for purposes of minimum wage and overtime payment each workweek stands alone; there can be no averaging of 2 or more workweeks. Employee coverage, compliance with wage payment requirements, and the application of most exemptions are determined on a workweek basis.
Hours Worked -- Covered employees must be paid for all hours worked in a workweek. In general, "hours worked" includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer's premises or at any other prescribed place of work. Also included is any additional time the employee is suffered or permitted to work.
