Transcript Wage and Hour 101

WAGE AND HOUR 101
THE BASICS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO AVOID THE
PITFALLS!
Melodee M. Parker, Director
Human Resources, FCPS
KASBO Fall 2014
FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT
• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal law
that regulates hours and wages
• State law can have additional regulations beyond
the federal law
Pitfall to Avoid: Applying either federal or state law rather than the
one that provides the greatest benefit to the employee
EXEMPT
• Employees that are “exempt” do not receive
overtime pay
• Must meet the qualifications
• Earnings Test
• Salary Basis Test
• Primary Duty Test
Pitfall to Avoid: Job titles do not determine exempt status.
IS BRADLEY EXEMPT?
• Bradley is a mechanic for the bus garage. His work
is repetitive and routine. He has had to work several
hours of overtime this last school year and his
supervisor calculates his end of the year earnings
are more than if he were paid on the salary
schedule. Since school budgets are tight, the
supervisor recommends that Bradley’s title be
changed to Mechanic Supervisor and be placed on
the salaried schedule as an exempt employee. His
duties will not change.
NO
• A title change alone is not enough to be under the
exempt status. When considering whether a
position might qualify for exempt status use the
“exempt vs non-exempt” checklist. Making an
employee salaried does not equal exempt status
• When in doubt check with your attorney, better to
be sure on the front end, that paying hefty fines and
retro overtime on the back end..
NON-EXEMPT
• Includes all employees that do not meet the requirements of
exemption
• Must be paid one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for
each hour worked over 40 hours
• Takes “leave time” in hourly increments
Pitfall to Avoid: Classifying someone as exempt incorrectly to avoid
overtime payment. Common and costly mistake!
DOES LINDA NEED TO BE PAID?
• Linda works as an administrative assistant. She is
packing up to leave for the day when her boss says
he needs her to revise a presentation on an
emergency basis, but he is not finished with the
draft yet . Linda waits at her desk for an hour, during
which time she balances her checkbook and plays
computer solitaire. Finally, her boss gives her the
presentation and she does the revisions. She leaves
the office at 7pm.
YES
• Linda must be paid for the hour she was waiting for
her boss to give her the presentation even though
she performed no productive work during that time.
She must be “paid to wait”.
MEALS AND BREAKS
Lunch
• Kentucky law requires employees receive a “reasonable period”
for lunch ( 30 minutes )
• Close to the middle of the employee’s shift, not before 3 hours of
start time or 6 hours beyond start time
• Should be taken away from work area so not perceived as working
Breaks
• Kentucky law requires employer to provide a break/rest period of
at least 10 minutes every 4 hours
• Employee is paid during the break time
Pitfall to Avoid: Allowing employees to work through lunch or count
time at beginning or end of shift as lunch time
RECORDING TIME
• Employees should accurately record time
• Timesheets should list the specific time of arrival, departure
and lunch (allowed to leave premises)
• Employers should keep a “master schedule” that
includes the identified lunch/breaks for at least 3
years
Pitfall to Avoid: Generic or pre-populated timesheets being used or
supervisors not ensuring that accurate start/end and break times are
recorded. Everyone having 8:00-5:00 timesheets is a big red flag .
DOES LORA LU NEED TO BE
DISCIPLINED OR PAID?
• Lora Lu is a cafeteria manager for XYZ school. Her
job keeps her very busy, too busy in fact to ever
take a lunch break. Lora Lu will eat a sandwich
while balancing the food service ledger or making
out schedules for the following weeks. She hasn’t
complained about not being able to take a lunch
break, in fact, when you discover that she hasn’t
been taking lunch, she tells you she never
expected to be paid for that time…that’s why she
writes in a lunch time on her timesheet each day.
YES AND YES
• Hopefully, you have the sign-in sheet where Lora Lu signed
that she understood she needed to take a lunch break mid
day for 30 mins (and to record that time on her timesheet
accurately). You will have to pay her back pay to when she
tells you she has been working through lunch…this might
mean you have to pay overtime if the time goes over 40 hours
during the work week.
• Additionally, you should give her a verbal and written warning
regarding “must take a 30 min lunch , recording time
accurately and getting supervisor’s prior approval before
working overtime”.
FLEX TIME
• Flex time pertains only to the regular working hours
– not overtime
• Compensatory time (Comp time) pertains only to
overtime hours in public sector NOT private sector
Pitfall to Avoid: Inconsistent Flex time application by supervisors or
hours being made up outside of the same work week which could result
in overtime pay
DOES JUNIOR GET A VACATION?
• Junior, the custodian, comes to you as his
supervisor and lets you know that he will be taking
all of next week off for vacation. When you remind
him that he took all of his vacation time last month
to hike Pike’s Peak, he lets you know that he has
been coming in on Saturdays and Sundays for the
last 3 weekends and is ready to “flex” his time.
NO AND POSSIBLY YES
• You have kept your records of all beginning of the year
training and monthly email reminders to your custodial staff
that reminds them of recording their time accurately, getting
supervisor’s approval before working overscheduled/overtime
hours and recording accurately on their time sheet.
• You will have to pay Junior for the six days worked, according
to the hours that he says he works (unless you have cameras
in the building that can show exactly when he came and left).
You can give him a verbal and written warning or you can
recommend termination based on Policy 03.27.
RESOURCES
An Employer’s Guide to Kentucky Wage and Hour Issues
(Kentucky Chamber of Commerce)
Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR (BLR)
HR Audit Checklists (BLR))
www.dol.gov
www.labor.ky.gov/
www.findlaw.com/wage_law
QUESTIONS???
• Contact Information
• Melodee M. Parker
• 859.381.4114
• [email protected]