Things You May Not Have Known About the FLSA

The Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA says that if you work more than 40 hours a week, you are entitled to overtime. That seems pretty straightforward, but the FLSA is actually quite a complex law. The good news is that many of those complexities work in favor of workers.

Here are some things you may not have known about the FLSA—and about your right to get paid either your regular wage, or overtime pay, for the hours that you work.

You can rest and sleep on the job – If you work in a job that is required to or which voluntarily gives you rest hours or down time (for example, truck drivers), the time that you are resting is time that counts as “working hours.” Additionally, shorter rest times, at any job, usually less than 20 minutes, are common and are counted as work hours as well.

Your lunch break is not work hours—you should be left alone, and not made to work during lunches.

Travel sometimes counts – Travel from your home to work, does not count as working hours. However, travel once you are at work, does count. So, for example, once you start work, if you have to go to job sites, or visit clients in their homes, the travel time is the time that you are working.

If you are traveling out of town, as a general rule, your work hours are still your work hours, even away from home. However, time traveling as a passenger on a plane or train or subway or other method of transportation, generally doesn’t count (unless you are made to work during this time).

40 hours is weekly—not an average – Employers must pay you overtime if you work more than 40 hours in a week. It doesn’t matter if your average weekly work hours are less than 40 hours. So, if you worked 41 hours this week and 10 hours next week, you would still be owed overtime for the 1 hour you exceeded the 40 hours threshold this week, even though your average weekly hours were below 40.

There are some exceptions to this for medical workers, police officers, fire fighters, and other government and emergency personnel jobs).

You still get minimum wage, even if you’re tipped – Unlike many states, California does not allow employers to reduce your minimum wage hourly rate, just because you make tips. Your tips cannot be shared with employees who are ordinarily not tipped (like managers or owners).

Commissioned employees may be exempt – Commissioned employees may be exempt from the FLSA but generally only if when calculated, the commissions equal 1.5 times the federal minimum wage.

Are you being paid for all the hours you are actually working? Contact the San Jose employment lawyers at the Costanzo Law Firm today.

Sources:

dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/22-flsa-hours-worked

adp.com/resources/articles-and-insights/articles/h/how-to-calculate-overtime-pay.aspx