Fair+Labor+Standards+Act

 **Fair Labor Standards Act**
 * The FLSA establishes minimum wage, record keeping, and youth standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Many states also have minimum wage laws, at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek.
 * Covered nonexempt employees must receive for hours worked over 40 per workweek (any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years or older may work in any workweek. The FLSA does not require #|overtime pay for work on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days.
 * Particular jobs may be completely excluded from coverage under the FLSA overtime rules. There are two general types of exclusion. Some jobs are specifically excluded in the statute itself. For example, employees of movie theaters and many agricultural workers are not governed by the FLSA overtime rules. Another type of exclusion is for jobs which are governed by some other specific federal. As a general rule, if a job is governed by some other federal, the FLSA does not #|apply. For example, most railroad workers are governed by the Railway Labor Act, and many are governed by the Motor Carriers Act, and not the FLSA. Many of FLSA exclusions are found in §213 of the FLSA.

**Exempt or Nonexempt.**
 * Employees whose jobs are governed by the FLSA are either  "exempt" or "nonexempt." Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay. Exempt employees are not. Most employees covered by the FLSA are nonexempt. Some are not.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Advisor provides employers and employees with the information they need to understand Federal minimum wage, overtime, child labor and recordkeeping requirements. The child labor section answers questions from youth, parents, teachers and employers about Federal child labor rules. This Advisor was developed by the Wage and Hour Division of the Standards Administration. When you start the FLSA Advisor, you will be given a brief explanation of what the FLSA does-and does not-require. You will then be provided an opportunity to review answers to frequently asked questions or to explore information on FLSA coverage, child labor rules, determining hours worked and other FLSA topics. The Department of Labor (DOL) developed the elaws Advisors to help employees and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under numerous Federal #|employment laws. Each Advisor includes links to more detailed information that may be useful to the user, such as links to regulatory text, publications and organizations. 


 * Influences ﻿**
 * The full effect of the FLSA of 1938 was postponed by the wartime inflation of the 1940s, which lowered wage values to below the level specified in the Act
 * The Contract Work Hours Standards Act, though not a direct amendment or modification to the FLSA, became law in 1962. It replaced the confusing and often ambiguous series of “Eight Hour Laws” (which date back to 1892) with a single, comprehensive law to govern hours of work for laborers.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed to amend the FLSA and make it illegal to pay workers lower wages strictly on the basis on their sex. It is often summed up with the phrase “Equal pay for equal work".
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed into law a supplemental appropriation bill (H.R. 2206) which contains the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. This provision amended the FLSA to provide for the increase of the federal minimum wage by an incremental plan, culminating in a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour by July 24, 2009.

<span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">If an employee is entitled to overtime they must be paid one and a half times the employee's "regular rate of pay" for all hours worked over 40 in the same work week.
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">The Fair Labor Standards Act applies to "employees who are engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or who are employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce", unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage. Generally, an employer who does at least $500,000 of business or gross sales in a year satisfies the commerce requirements of the FLSA, and therefore that employer's workers will be subject to the FLSA's protections if none of the other exemptions apply. Several exemptions exist that relieve an employer from having to meet the statutory minimum wage, overtime, and record-keeping requirements. The largest exceptions apply to the so-called "white collar" exemptions that are applicable to professional, administrative and executive employees. Exemptions are narrowly construed; an employer must prove that the employees fit "plainly and unmistakeably" within the exemption's terms.
 * <span style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;">The FLSA applies to "any individual employed by an employer" but not to independent contractors or volunteers because they are not considered "employees" under the FLSA. Still, an employer cannot simply exempt workers from the FLSA by calling them independent contractors, and many employers have illegally misclassified their workers as independent contractors. Some employers similarly mislabel employees as volunteers. Courts will look at the "economic reality" of the relationship between the putative employer and the worker to determine whether the worker is, in fact, an independent contractor. Courts use a similar test to determine whether a worker was concurrently employed by more than one person or entity; commonly referred to as "joint employers." For example, a farm worker may be considered jointly employed by a labor contractor (who is in charge of recruitment, transportation, payroll, and keeping track of hours) and a grower (who generally monitors the quality of the work performed, determines where to place workers, controls the volume of work available, has quality control requirements, and has the power to fire, discipline, or provide work instructions to workers).
 * Presuming an employee is not exempt from overtime, there are many instances in which overtime is not paid properly, including when an employee is not paid for travel time between job sites, activities before their shift starts or after it ends, and activities to prepare for work that are central to work activities.

**If you are NOT required to use a negotiated grievance procedure for your FLSA claim then you may file an FLSA claim** either with the agency employing you during the claim period or with OPM, but you cannot pursue the same claim with both the agency and OPM at the same time. We encourage you to get a decision on the claim from the agency before filing a claim with us. However, you are not required to do so. This is a matter of personal preference and you may choose to file your claim with either the agency or OPM. If you get an unfavorable decision from the agency, you may still file the claim with us. However, the reverse is not true. You may not file a claim with the agency after receiving an unfavorable decision from us. An OPM decision on a claim is final and is not subject to further administrative review. Nothing limits your right to bring an action in an appropriate United States court. Filing a claim with a Federal agency or with OPM does not stop the statute of limitations from running. OPM will not decide a claim that is in litigation. (An FLSA pay claim filed on or after June 30, 1994, is subject to a 2-year statute of limitations, except in cases of a willful violation where the statute of limitations is 3 years.)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-top: 0px;">The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), governs the process that Compensation Analysts use to determine whether a position is either eligible for over-time pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week (non-exempt) or is paid a flat sum for hours worked, even if they exceed 40 hours within a workweek (exempt).

<span style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The FLSA, identifies two types of employees: non-exempt employees and exempt employees: > > > > The FLSA did not apply to the University until 1966; coverage lasted only a short time before a Supreme Court decision voided coverage. Another Supreme Court decision in 1985 paved the way for FLSA coverage of virtually all public employees. Congress implemented this decision, which applied to the University, in 1986. >
 * <span style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Non-exempt employees are employees who, based on the duties performed and the manner of compensation, are required to account for time worked and sick leave, vacation, and other leave on an hourly and fractional hourly basis. The FLSA requires that these employees be paid overtime at the premium (time-and-one-half) for actual time worked in excess of 40 hours per week.
 * <span style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Exempt employees are employees who, based on the duties performed and the manner of compensation, are exempt from the FLSA minimum wage and overtime provisions. Exempt employees are paid an established monthly or annual salary and are expected to fulfill the duties of their positions regardless of the hours worked. They do not receive premium overtime, straight overtime or compensatory time for working more than 40 hours in a work week.
 * <span style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Salary Basis Test: requirement that employees be paid at least $455 week or $1,971.66 a month "on a salary basis", which means that the employee must receive his full predetermined salary for any week in which he performs any work, without regard to the number of days or hours worked or the quality or quantity of work performed.
 * <span style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Duties Test: defines three categories of jobs which may be exempt from the overtime entitlement: executive, administrative and professional. Computer professionals may qualify as exempt under the professional exemption if they meet special duties criteria and are paid either on a salary basis or an hourly amount which is at least $45.84 per hour. In addition, certain seasonal, recreational employees can be considered exempt from certain provisions.

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 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Generally, an employee is paid on a salary basis if s/he has a "guaranteed minimum" amount of money s/he can count on receiving for any work week in which s/he performs "any" work. This amount need not be the entire compensation received, but there must be some amount of pay the employee can count on receiving in any work week in which s/he performs any work. Some "rules of thumb" indicating that an employee is paid on a salary basis include whether an employee's base pay is computed from an annual figure divided by the number of paydays in a year, or whether an employee's actual pay is lower in work periods when s/he works fewer than the normal number of hours. However, whether an employee is paid on a salary basis is a "fact," and thus specific evaluation of particular circumstances is necessary. Whether an employee is paid on a salary basis is not affected by whether pay is expressed in hourly terms (as this is a fairly common requirement of many payroll computer programs), but whether the employee in fact has a "guaranteed minimum" amount of pay s/he can count on.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The FLSA salary basis test applies only to reductions in monetary amounts. Requiring an employee to charge absences from work to leave accruals is not a reduction in "pay," because the monetary amount of the employee's paycheck remains the same. Similarly, paying an employee more than the guaranteed salary amount is not normally inconsistent with salary basis status, because this does not result in any reduction in the base pay.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With some exceptions, the base pay of a salary basis employee may not be reduced based on the "quality or quantity" of work performed (provided that the employee does "some" work in the work period). This usually means that the base pay of a salary basis employee may not be reduced if s/he performs less work than normal, if the reason for that is determined by the employer. For example, a salary basis pay employee's base pay may not be reduced if there is "no work" to be performed (such as for a plant closing or slow period), and a salary basis employee's base pay may not be reduced for partial day absences. However, employers may "dock" the base pay of salary basis employees in full day increments, for disciplinary suspensions, or for personal leave, or for sickness under a bona fide sick leave plan (as for example if the employee has run out of accrued sick leave).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thus, there can be "permissible" and "impermissible" reductions in salary basis pay. Permissible reductions have no effect on the employee's exempt status. Impermissible reductions may, in that the general rule is that an employee who is subjected to impermissible reductions in salary is no longer paid on a salary basis, and is therefore nonexempt. However, employers have several avenues by which they can "cure" impermissible reductions in salary basis pay, and as a practical matter these make it unlikely that an otherwise exempt employee would become nonexempt because of salary basis pay problems.The salary basis pay requirement for exempt status does not <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">apply to some jobs (for example, doctors, lawyers and schoolteachers are exempt even if the employees are paid hourly).

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