FLSA – What Does It Regulate and What Not?

FLSA is a “Fair Labor Standards Act” and is also known as federal wage and hour law. Its main aim is to protect the rights of the workers. Here, the FLSA exempts some employees and nonexempt’s some employees from various regulations. Previously this is applicable for the employees working in the private sector but, now it is also applicable for the public sector employees. To know what FLSA regulates and what not, see the below information.

FLSA regulates

  • Minimum wage: The minimum wage under FLSA varies based on state and federal laws. It doesn’t replace any state laws that are favorable to the employees.
  • Overtime: The term overtime is defined in FLSA, it is the time over the threshold limit of working and usually it is 40 hours per week and it may differ for some medical or government jobs.
  • Child labor: Under FLSA child labor provisions are designed for protecting the educational opportunities of the youth and this laws will restrict them for the employment in some jobs that are hazardous to their health and safety.
  • Record keeping: Here, the FLSA requires employers that are covered under it to keep all the records on wages, hours and other items. It doesn’t require any kind of form but just some information which is accurate about the employee, worked hours and wages. Under record keeping there are specific records that are to be kept and they vary in various states and countries.

Under FLSA, there are exempt and non exempt employees. The nonexempt employees are covered by FLSA minimum wage and over time provisions whereas, exempt employees of white collar jobs are not covered with minimum wage and overtime, if they meet certain standards.

FLSA doesn’t regulates
FLSA doesn’t regulate various employment practices such as:

  • Payment on vacation, holiday, severance or sick
  • Premium pay for the people working on holidays or weekend
  • Rest period or meal hours, vacations or holidays
  • Fringe benefits or raising the payment
  • Compensation for unemployment
  • Pay stubs or “W-2”s
  • A discharge notice, reason for discharge or providing immediate payment for the employees terminated, etc.

These are some of the things that FLSA regulates and doesn’t regulates. As said the main aim of this act is to give the fair wages to the employees and it also eliminates the labor conditions that are leading to low standards of living. This act is very helpful for the employees. So, every business owner and employee must know the FLSA laws.

Updated: October 21, 2014 — 4:34 am