Fair Labor Standards Act, Overtime and RF policy:



Fair Labor Standards Act, Overtime, Meal Breaks and RF policy:

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (referred to as "the Act" or "FLSA"), is published in law in sections 201-219 of title 29, United States Code and can be found at . The Act provides for minimum standards for both wages and overtime entitlement, and spells out administrative procedures by which covered work time must be compensated. Included in the Act are provisions related to child labor, equal pay, and portal-to-portal activities. In addition, the Act exempts specified employees or groups of employees from the application of certain of its provisions.

The Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) basic requirements are:

← Payment of the minimum wage;

← Overtime pay for time worked over 40 hours in a workweek;

← Restrictions on the employment of children; and

← Recordkeeping.

The FLSA has been amended on many occasions since 1938. Currently, workers covered by the FLSA are entitled to the minimum wage of $6.00 per hour and overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and one-half times their regular rate of pay after 40 hours of work in a workweek.

← Overtime Pay May Not Be Waived: The overtime requirement may not be waived by agreement between the employer and employees. An agreement that only 8 hours a day or only 40 hours a week will be counted as working time also fails the test of FLSA compliance. An announcement by the employer that no overtime work will be permitted, or that overtime work will not be paid for unless authorized in advance, also will not impair the employee's right to compensation for compensable overtime hours that are worked, any hours over 40 in a workweek.

← The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee's workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours -- seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned. For purposes of pay calculation under the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 as amended, the Research Foundation (RF) has established a workweek period that extends from Saturday at 12:00 a.m. through Friday at 11:59 p.m. Within this workweek period, the Research Foundation has established either a 37.5-hour or 40-hour standard workweek as the basis for full-time employment [1.0 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)]. Part-time employment is calculated on the standard workweek. There is no limit in the Act on the number of hour’s employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek. The Act does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless the hours worked are over 40 in that workweek.

Research Foundation Recommendation

The Research Foundation recommends that locations with a standard workweek of 37.5 hours compensate nonexempt employees at their regular rate for the non overtime portion of any time worked in excess of 37.5 hours for a given week. This ensures that prompt payment laws are satisfied and avoids the complications that may result from the conditions that accompany providing paid time off in lieu of wages.

Examples

Employee A is working based on a 37.5 hour week.  If he/she should work between 37.5 and 40 hours in a work week, those hours between 37.5 and 40 are compensable at the regular rate of pay. On this campus we pay out the “comp time” as it is earned because it is less of a fiscal risk to the grant if paid at the end of a grant. The grant may not have the funds left to pay the “comp time” which makes the RF liable. Employee A must note those hours on their timesheet in order to be properly paid.

 

Ex: Salary for Workweek of 37.5 hours.  Employee A’s biweekly salary is $945.57 which equals $12.61 an hour. If Employee A were to work hours over 40 in a workweek his/her compensation for each of those hours would be $18.92 (time and a half).  If Employee A were to work 8 hours on a Saturday and his/her regular schedule for the rest of the week the Saturday hours would be compensated at time and a half for hours over 40. However, if Employee A. worked that Saturday and then took a sick day during the rest of the week, Saturday would be paid at straight time because he/she took a sick day, and that isn’t considered time worked, even though he/she would still be compensated for Saturday.  Another scenario would be if Employee A attended an event on a Wednesday evening that lasted 2.5 hours.  Since that is considered straight time a schedule could be worked out for that week that included arriving 2.5 hours late one day or leaving 2.5 hours early one day, as long as it is within that workweek and the employee agrees. If not then the employee should be compensated.

Meal Period Requirements

The following table provides meal period requirements, based on the length of the scheduled work day and times.

|Work Day |Work Day Times(s) |Meal Period Length/Times |

|Length | | |

|More than 6 |Beginning after 6:00 a.m.|30 minutes*, taken between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. |

|hours |and extending beyond 2:00|"The Department will permit a shorter meal period of not less than 30 minutes as a |

| |p.m. |matter of course, without application by the employer, so long as there is no indication|

| | |of hardship to employees. A meal period of not less than 20 minutes will be permitted |

| | |only in special or unusual cases after investigation and issuance of a special permit." |

|More than 6 |Extending between 1:00 |30 minutes, taken mid-shift |

|hours |p.m. and 6:00 a.m. | |

| |(inclusive) | |

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