FLSA
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal law setting minimum-wage, overtime, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards for covered employment.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division enforces the FLSA. The FLSA sets a federal floor: where a state or local law is more protective, you must meet that higher standard too. Hours you suffer or permit a non-exempt employee to work are hours worked, including overtime nobody approved in advance. For the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions, exempt status generally turns on the salary basis, salary level, and duties tests. Requiring an exempt employee to punch a clock changes nothing about the classification.
What does the FLSA require of you?
The Department of Labor names three core requirements for covered employment: minimum wageMinimum wage. Minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate you may legally pay a covered employee, set by federal, state, and sometimes local law.Click to open the term, overtime payOvertime pay. Overtime pay is 1.5 times the regular rate, owed under the FLSA for each hour a non-exempt employee works over 40 in a workweek.Click to open the term, and accurate records. The workweekWorkweek (FLSA). A workweek under the Fair Labor Standards Act is a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 consecutive hours used to compute overtime.Click to open the term is the overtime boundary even when the pay periodPay period. A pay period is the recurring block of time, such as a week or a month, for which you calculate and pay wages.Click to open the term uses a different one. State or local recordkeeping requirements may reach further, so confirm the applicable rules with the state labor agency.
| RULE | UNDER THE FLSA |
|---|---|
| Overtime | Owed for hours over forty in a workweek |
| Daily threshold | None federally; several states add daily overtime or a seventh-consecutive-day rule |
| Workweek | A fixed, recurring 168-hour period you designate |
| Records | Hours worked and wages earned, for covered non-exempt employees |
| Record format | None prescribed by federal law |
- U.S. Department of Labor, Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #21: Recordkeeping Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
General information, not legal or tax advice. Apply current federal and state rules with qualified guidance.