Compliance is a part of just about every HR professional’s job. Whether you work administering benefits, running payroll, developing training, or are a recruiter, there are levels of compliance and regulations that touch all of these areas. In an effort to keep employees safe and allow for the best working conditions possible, compliance laws have been developed around employment that employers need to pay special attention to.
What is FLSA and what are its benefits?
What is FLSA?
Many employment laws have been on record for decades. One of the most foundational to many organizations is the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA. This law was passed in 1938, due to an increase in public attention to the importance of labor laws. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were few guidelines around how old an employee had to be, how much they had to get paid, or what their working conditions needed to be like.
The benefits of FLSA you must know.
The FLSA helped to shape the future of employment and offer measures of safety for potential employees. Here are some of the employee benefits of FLSA.
1. Minimum wage
Before FLSA, it was legal for employers to pay their employees whatever they wanted. Minimum wage helped to enforce a standard. While this law decrees a minimum wage amount at the federal level (that businesses in any state can’t pay less than), there are states that have established higher minimum wages within their territory.
2. The standardization of the workweek
FLSA helped establish the 40-hour work week that most people are scheduled for. Whether it’s an early shift, every other day shift, or a 9-5 Monday to Friday office job, most companies only schedule their employees for 40 hours, and anything beyond that qualified for overtime compensation.
3. Eligibility for overtime pay
Employees who are paid an hourly wage are usually eligible for extra pay over and above their hourly wage for any hours worked in excess of 40. While FLSA does exempt certain employment types and jobs from minimum wage and overtime, this stipulation of FLSA has helped people be paid more fairly in accordance with the amount of work completed and the number of hours worked. Another benefit of this FLSA mandate is that there is no limit to the amount that an employee can work so that those looking to earn more money have the opportunity accept extra hours at a higher rate of pay.
4. Minimum employment age
In the early 20th century, it wasn’t uncommon for children to be working instead of going to school, even in environments that were less than safe, like factories. During the Great Depression, many families felt a financial strain and sent their children to work to help make ends meet at home. FLSA put a stop to this to help prevent children from working in unsafe conditions, prevent injuries, and allow them a chance to get a full education.
Another benefits of FLSA is for employers – it offers a guideline to follow and help them make decisions. It also helps make them more competitive – if a business is paying well above minimum wage, for instance, they may receive positive PR or be able to recruit more quality candidates who can then go on to better support the day to day operations of the business. The only companies that are exempt from FLSA are businesses whose annual sales total less than $500,000 and those who are engaged in interstate commerce, but overall, FLSA has helped to support and shape employee-employer relationships since 1938 and is still an important piece of employer compliance that has even been expanded over the years to offer fair working conditions for all.
