7.5 Common FLSA Errors
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Seventy-five years ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted over 100 laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which initially protected only 20% of the workforce with regulations on child labor and minimum wage. Despite amendments, compliance issues persist for employers, leading to common mistakes such as failing to pay for compensable breaks and travel time. Employers must also navigate complex state laws regarding overtime and child labor protections to avoid penalties.
7.5 Common FLSA Errors
- 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 INADEQUATELY COMPENSABLE TRACKING TIME FOR BREAKS NON-EXEMPT You don’t have to pay EMPLOYEES The DOL offers a free workers for meal breaks timesheet mobile app for that are at least 30 employees to track their minutes long, but they must be time if the employer is doing a poor completely releived from work. Also, job of it. This could be the so-called some time and attendance systems Exhibit A in an FLSA complaint. automatically deduct time for meal Consider an efficient and effective breaks, even when employees perform time and attendance system. duties. Finally, rest breaks of 5-20 minutes are compensable. NOT UNDERSTANDING FAILING TO PAY FOR THE TRAVEL RULE TIME WORKED AWAY FROM THE OFFICE A non-exempt employee You must pay for all traveling for work purposes hours worked. must be paid for travel time Non-exempt employees during the normal workday. who check work-related emails after The rationale is that the employee is hours are considered to be working merely substituting travel for regular and should be paid as well. Consider a work. You must pay for this time even if policy that clearly sets out travel occurs on a non-work day (e.g., a expectations in these areas. Saturday or Sunday). ALLOWING EMPLOYEES TO WORK NOT FOLLOWING THE EXTRA WITHOUT CHILD LABOR RULES COMPENSATION Legions of teenagers find Good employees will summer jobs, but many often voluntarily arrive employers violate the clear early or stay late to make sure a task rules that are designed to gets done. The employer must pay protect them from what is termed as them for this time unless it puts a “oppressive child labor.” This includes stop to it and disciplines them hazardous work, and permissible work accordingly if they don’t. hours for those under the age of 16. IMPROPERLY FORGETTING ABOUT COMPUTING OVERTIME STATE LAWS We all know that overtime This is half an error is calculated at 1.5 times because it points to the the regular rate of pay. The fact that the FLSA is not rate of pay includes shift the only law in town. Many differentials, nondiscretionary bonuses, states have broader commissions, on-call pay and other protections, including incentive payments. overtime for hours worked over eight in a day and higher minimum wage. copyright 2013