Part A:
| Federal Legislation | State Legislation | Local Legislation |
| Fair Labor Standards Act: Establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, child labor standards affecting full time and part time workers in the private sector and federal, state and local governments | HB2571 states that public employees shall immediately be terminated from their employment if they have been found by a court of law to have unlawfully caused substantial harm to any person on three or more occasions in the course of their official duties | R20-5-1220 Small Employer Request for Exception to Record keeping Requirement |
Part B:
The Fair Labor Standards Act.
Several principles are binding to the Fair Labor Standards Act and these include:
Basic Wage Pay
Effective as of the 24 th of July, the federal government required that the minimum wage should be $7.25 per hour and that in the incident that the employee is subject to the federal and state law, they should be compensated by the higher minimum wage. The minimum wage is the lowest compensation per hour without which a non-exempt laborer cannot take up a job offer. Thus, it is legally binding for both the employer and the employee. Depending on the living standard of specific states, the minimum wage often differs with the federal minimum wage. For instance, the minimum wage of Massachusetts is $11 while that of Arizona is $10.50 per hour (United States Department of Labor, 2018). Several minimum wage exemptions are allowed, and these can include low skilled workers, students, workers with disabilities that affect productivity and workers below the age of twenty years.
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Hours Worked
Time spent undertaking duties at the workplace or work that is influenced by an employer is considered hours worked and should be compensated accordingly (United States Department of Labor, 2018). The maximum work hours per week in the United States are forty. Otherwise, any amount of time spent performing job duties should be considered overtime and treated as such. An employee who remains in the workplace to finish work duties after the scheduled work time should be compensated for the extra hours since they are in their line of duty. Certain conditions may be considered work time if one is obligated by work circumstances. Examples of these include time spent travelling from one job site to the next, travelling away from home while it cuts across the employee’s workday and on-call time within the work premises.
Overtime
According to the United States Department of Labor (2018), time worked that exceeds the 40-hour work week should be paid by at least one and a half time the minimum wage per hour. A work week in the Fair Labor Standard Act is defined as the recurring period of 168 hours in seven consecutive twenty-four-hour periods. The Act, however, does not provide for overtime over the weekends and holidays unless the employer provides for such.
Record Keeping
The Act requires the employee to keep records relating to wages and hours worked according to the record-keeping regulations. This information includes employee personal information, work week records, that is, the hour and the day workweek begin, total straight-time earnings, overtime specifics, total compensation paid in each period, and any adjustments on the time and dates of payment (United States Department of Labor, 2018). It is mandatory for employers to keep payroll, sales and purchase records, collective and bargaining record for at least three years and wage calculations for at least two years. These data should be open for inspection and should be kept at central records office or within the work premises.
Child Labor
The Fair Labor Standards Act makes provisions for child labor to ensure that children do not miss out on important work experiences at their age. However, such activity is not carried out at the risk of their well being or the cost of their educational opportunities. The federal state does not obligate that the youth have work permits or set a certain amount of working hours. The federal youth act only covers those under the age of 18, and it is only those aged sixteen and seventeen that can engage in occupations of unlimited hours.
Conclusion
The department of labor enforces The Fair Labor Standards Act, and an employee is obligated to sue their employer for violation of the FLSA. In the instance that an employee is not paid the minimum wage, the employer is to make monetary compensation amounting to the difference of the wages paid and the minimum wage as stated by the law. The state of Arizona legislation provides for the act violation stating that any entity alleging a minimum wage, earned paid sick time, or equivalent paid time off violation shall file a complaint with the Labor Department within one year from the date the wages, earned paid sick time, or equivalent paid time off were due. It is important to realize that non-compliance can turn a manageable dispute into an expensive legal exercise causing the deterioration of an organization's good-will. Paskoff (2010) notes that the violation of FLSA has become a good market for attorneys who have helped employees realize the aspects of the act employers have remained oblivious to.
References
Arizona Administrative Code (2017) Title 20, Chapter 5 Retrieved from https://www.azica.gov/sites/default/files/media/20-05.pdf
Paskoff. M.S. (2010). The Fair Labor Standards Act Has Become A Big Danger to Employers. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/2010/11/18/flsa-employee-lawsuit-leadership-managing-liability.html#bdf936a61d49
United States Department of Labor (2018) Compliance Assistance - Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA ), Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/
