Wages and Hours

The following are resources published by the U.S. Department of Labor to help small businesses comply with wage and hour laws.

• Best Practices to Ensure Fair Compensation
  This report provides best practices that offer practical and effective solutions to address the barriers to fair compensation.
  
• Child Support Payments FAQs for Employers
  Frequently asked questions about an employer's responsibilities when an employee's income is ordered withheld because of child support payments.
  
• Employers' Guide to Child Support Payments and Income
  An employer's guide to withholding an employee's income due to outstanding child support payments.
  
• Fact Sheets on FLSA, FMLA and Other Wage and Hour Laws
  Fact sheets from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division explaining wage and hour laws and regulations such as those covering minimum wage, overtime, child labor and family and medical leave, government contracts, immigration labor provisions, wage garnishments, and polygraph testing.
  
• Fair Labor Standards Act : Compliance Assistance
  Compliance assistance resources from the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor concerning various requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  
• Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor
  The FLSA Advisor provides help on complying with the minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor and recordkeeping laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor.
  
• Fair Labor Standards Act Overtime Security Advisor
  This Advisor helps workers and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations on overtime payments.
  
• Fair Labor Standards Act Section 14(c) Advisor
  Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes employers, after receiving a certificate from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, to pay special minimum wages wages less than the Federal minimum wage to workers who have disabilities for the work being performed. This Advisor helps to make the rules more understandable.
  
• Find It! By Topic : Wages
  Provides a shortcut to the information and services the Department of Labor offers on wages.
  
• Find It! By Topic : Work Hours
  Provides a shortcut to the information and services the Department of Labor offers on worked hours.
  
• FirstStep Employment Law Advisor
  The FirstStep Employment Law Advisor is designed to help employers determine which laws administered by the Department of Labor apply to their business or organization and to provide links to information about how to comply with these laws.
  
• Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act
  The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments.
  
• Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation FAQs
  Information on medical benefits, compensation, claims and insurance requirements under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.
  
• Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Information
  Home page of the Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs in the U.S. Department of Labor.
  
• Migrant and Seasonal Workers Protection Act : Compliance Assistance
  The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act removes the restraints on commerce caused by activities detrimental to migrant and seasonal agricultural workers; requires farm labor contractors to register under this Act; and assures necessary protections for migrant and seasonal agricultural workers, agricultural associations, and agricultural employers.
  
• Minimum Wage FAQs
  Answers questions ranging from "how often does the minimum wage increase" to "who ensures that workers are paid at least the minimum wage?"
  
• Notice to Workers Paid Special Minimum Wages
  Every employer of workers with disabilities under special minimum wage certificates authorized by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act, and/or the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act shall display a poster prescribed by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division explaining the conditions under which special minimum wages may be paid.
  
• Overtime Pay (Fair Pay Web Portal)
  The FairPay Web site is designed to help users understand the Department of Labor's overtime regulations.
  
• Pathways and Progress: Best Practices To Ensure Fair Compensation
  There are a wide variety of possible practices that can be implemented to ensure that compensation is nondiscriminatory. The Chicago Area Partnerships' Report 'Pathways and Progress: Best Practices to Ensure Fair Compensation' includes case summaries from a broad range of employers describing programs and practices that are designed to promote fair and nondiscriminatory compensation.
  
• State Minimum Wage Laws
  A map linking to information on state minimum wage laws.
  
• U.S. Department of Education Employer's Handbook for Processing Federal Administrative Wage Garnishments under the Debt Collection Improvement Act
  This handbook provides wage garnishment procedures for businesses with employees that have defaulted on student loans.
  
• Wage Garnishment Law : Compliance Assistance
  The wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) protect employees from discharge by their employers because their wages have been garnished for any one debt, and it limits the amount of an employee's earnings that may be garnished in any one week.
  
• Wage and Hour Field Operations Handbook
  A operations manual that provides U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigators and staff with interpretations of statutory provisions, procedures for conducting investigations, and general administrative guidance.
  
• Wages and Hours Worked
  The U.S. Department of Labor administers several laws that affect the wages and hours of covered workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires payment of no less than the federal minimum wage ($5.15) for each hour worked and time and one-half the employee's regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in the workweek for non-exempt workers. Most migrant and seasonal workers engaged in agriculture are protected by the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The Immigration and Nationality Act allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers on a temporary or permanent basis to perform certain types of work.
  
• Wages in Agriculture
  This page provides information on the obligations of employers of agricultural workers, including migrant and seasonal agricultural workers.
  
• Wages under Federal Contracts
  The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division administers laws and regulations requiring minimum wages and fringe benefits to be paid to workers performing construction work on federally-funded contracts or providing services to the federal government.
  
• Wages under Foreign Labor Certification
  The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers on a temporary or permanent basis to perform certain types of work. The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration generally grants certification to employers to obtain special visas in order to hire foreign workers in cases where there are insufficient qualified U.S. workers available and willing to perform work at wages that meet or exceed the prevailing wage paid for that occupation in the area of intended employment.
  
• Work Hours and Other Pay Issues
  Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the term work hours generally refers to time spent by employees performing work for their employers for which they are entitled to compensation. Federal laws pertaining to work hours are enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration. The Wage and Hour Division offers a range of guidance materials available on the subject of work hours.