Wage and Hour Compliance for Small Businesses

March 8th, 2012 by JBWK

Wage & Hour Insights provides a list of 10 golden rules for wage and hour compliance for small businesses.

While the list is simplistic and doesn’t account for all the law’s nuances, following it will prevent the majority of violations small businesses routinely commit:

  1. Pay the minimum wage
  2. Pay non-exempt employees overtime for more than 40-hour weeks
  3. When in doubt, call them non-exempt (even if they take a “salary”)
  4. Keep good time records
  5. Keep good pay records
  6. Pay for all hours worked (your employees do not “volunteer”)
  7. Don’t call employees independent contractors
  8. Understand which law governs you (state, federal, local)
  9. It doesn’t matter what your employees agree to (consent is no excuse)
  10. Good legal advice is cheaper than a violation

Wage and hour law is one of the most complicated, nuanced, and regularly violated of the federal employment laws. Unfortunately, even unintentional violations can carry steep penalties, so err on the side of caution.

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