Standard practice for any growing company is onboarding new employees.
To protect your company from labor law violations, you need to understand the laws set by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
What is FLSA law?
The FLSA governs employment in the private and government sectors, covering the following:
- Child labor: protecting children from employment interfering with education
- Minimum wage: ensuring employees receive a federal minimum hourly wage
- Overtime pay: requiring employers to pay a minimum of time and a half for each hour an employee works over a 40-hour work week
The FLSA also requires employers to keep accurate records of employee hours and pay. As a business owner, you will need to keep the official poster displaying these rules in a space where all employees can see them.
How can you be proactive about compliance?
To avoid litigation for FLSA violations, you can be proactive about compliance. Some ways you can take the initiative include:
- Consistently update individual employee job descriptions to accurately display their job duties
- Ensure you have all employees correctly identified as exempt or non-exempt
- Put your company policies in written form and make sure they are compliant
- Audit payroll as often as possible to ensure each employee’s pay accurately reflects their hours worked
The Department of Labor requires business owners to keep records of each employee’s personal information as well. Audit this information along with payroll regularly to keep everything up to date.
Violations can result in lengthy, costly lawsuits. Therefore, it is in the best interests of the company to ensure compliance.