Fair Labor Standards Act

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The FLSA sets federal wage standards

The DOL FLSA page describes federal minimum-wage, overtime, recordkeeping, and child-labor requirements. Enterprise and individual coverage rules determine which employment is covered.

The federal minimum wage remains a floor where the Act applies. States and localities may require higher wages, daily overtime, paid breaks, expense reimbursement, scheduling protections, or other terms.

Overtime uses a fixed workweek

Covered nonexempt employees generally receive at least one and one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period.

Hours cannot be averaged across two weeks to erase overtime. Paying twice monthly or every two weeks does not change the workweek calculation.

Hours worked extend beyond scheduled sessions

The DOL hours-worked fact sheet addresses waiting, on-call time, breaks, training, travel, and other activities. Work the employer suffers or permits can count even when performed before a scheduled shift, after hours, at home, or without prior approval.

ABA examples can include session preparation, required documentation, team messages, meetings, training, client-to-client travel, supply pickup, incident follow-up, and calls. Analyze each activity under the current federal and state rules.

Travel rules need exact events

Ordinary home-to-work commuting is generally outside federal hours worked. Travel from one job site to another during the workday generally counts. Special assignment, overnight, vehicle, passenger, and work-performed-during-travel rules add detail.

Record origin, destination, purpose, start and end events, duties performed, and governing rule. Keep wage treatment separate from mileage or expense reimbursement and payer payment.

Training has a four-part federal exclusion

Training time is generally work unless all federal exclusion conditions are met: it occurs outside regular hours, attendance is voluntary, it is not directly related to the employee’s job, and no productive work is performed.

Mandatory clinical onboarding, safety instruction, system training, and required credential maintenance often need careful analysis. State law may be more protective.

The regular rate can include more than base pay

The DOL overtime fact sheet explains that overtime is based on the regular rate, which includes many forms of remuneration while statutory exclusions apply to specified payments.

Nondiscretionary bonuses, shift differentials, and some incentives may affect the calculation. Labeling a payment a “bonus” does not establish exclusion.

A fictional federal payroll example

A nonexempt employee works 42 hours in one workweek at $24 per hour and earns an $84 nondiscretionary bonus allocated to that week. Straight-time hourly earnings are 42 × $24 = $1,008. Included remuneration is $1,008 + $84 = $1,092.

The regular rate is $1,092 ÷ 42 = $26. Because straight time for all 42 hours is already included, the additional federal overtime premium is 2 × $13 = $26. Total gross compensation is $1,118 before lawful deductions.

This fictional arithmetic assumes the bonus is included and no other rule changes the result. State law, another pay method, or another payment can require a different calculation.

Exemptions need every element

Salary, title, licensure, BCBA certification, or managerial language cannot by itself create an exemption. Verify the exact federal and state salary basis, threshold, duties, and occupation-specific rules.

Worker classification comes first. An employee cannot waive FLSA rights through a contractor label or agreement when the governing employment test is met.

Records must reflect actual work

The DOL recordkeeping fact sheet lists required employee, workweek, hours, wage, addition, deduction, and payment records. It states that payroll records generally remain for at least three years and wage-computation records for two years under the federal rules it summarizes.

A scheduled shift is not enough when actual hours differ. Provide a usable correction route, prohibit off-the-clock work, train supervisors to accept corrections, and pay compensable time even when policy approval was missing.

Other FLSA duties belong in the register

The Act also addresses child labor and reasonable break time and a private place, other than a bathroom, for covered nursing employees to express milk. Coverage, exemptions, timing, compensation, and small-employer rules require current review.

Map every duty alongside state and local requirements, which may provide broader coverage or protection.

Use a weekly control loop

Lock the employee cohort and workweek. Reconcile schedules, timecards, documentation timestamps, travel, training, messages, corrections, bonuses, differentials, and leave. Route exceptions before payroll close and preserve all corrections.

Useful measures include complete timecards divided by employees due, corrected hours by source, overtime hours, regular-rate exceptions resolved by cutoff, and pay shortages corrected by the applicable deadline. A low overtime rate is not a compliance target.

Questions owners should ask

• Which employees and work are covered?
• What fixed 168-hour workweek applies?
• Which activities count as work in each jurisdiction?
• Are travel, training, documentation, and messages captured?
• Which payments enter the regular rate?
• Does each claimed exemption meet every element?
• Are records complete and corrections timely?