Resources - FLSA

This page is to help your organizations stay  compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Department of Labor, especially as it relates to lunch/breaks, rounding and overtime pay.

What is the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA)?
The Fair Labor Standards Act advocates for workers by establishing minimum-wage, overtime, and child labor standards in the United States. These standards usually apply only to hourly employees, but some salaried employees also are covered under FLSA.

What Does FLSA Say About Overtime?
All non-exempt employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.

According to the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, overtime must be paid at 1.5 times the employee’s average pay rate after the employee has worked 40 hours. Because some employees work at different rates throughout the week, it can be complicated to calculate a fair overtime wage.
FLSA - Overtime Calculator Advisor
Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA

Break & Meals Period
Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks work-time that must be paid.
Full details from Department of Labor

Rounding to Schedule Start/End Times
Minor differences between the clock records and actual hours worked cannot ordinarily be avoided, but major discrepancies should be discouraged since they raise a doubt as to the accuracy of the records of the hours actually worked.
Full details from Department of Labor

Punch Rounding
Rounding, for example to the nearest tenth or quarter of an hour, is acceptable provided that it is used in such a manner that it will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.
Full details from Department of Labor

Record Keeping
Each employer shall preserve for at least 3 years of time keeping records
Full details from Department of Labor