IMPORTANT LINKS

FLSA

EEOC LAWS

What Does the EEOC Do?Employment DiscriminationHow To File a Claim?EEOC Laws vs. Local LawsEqual Employment Opportunity Commission Miami OfficeRecentt EEOC Decisions

 

What is the FLSA?

The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.31 per hour effective June 1, 2011. Overtime pay at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek.

* FLSA Minimum Wage: The Florida minimum wage is $7.31 per hour effective June 1, 2011. Many states also have minimum wage laws. In cases where an employee is subject to both state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher minimum wage.
* FLSA Overtime: Covered nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per workweek (any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years or older may work in any workweek. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days.
* Hours Worked: Hours worked ordinarily include all the time during which an employee is required to be on the employer’s premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace.
* Record keeping: Employers must display an official poster outlining the requirements of the FLSA. Employers must also keep employee time and pay records.
* Youth Employment: These provisions are designed to protect the educational opportunities of minors and prohibit their employment in jobs and under conditions detrimental to their health or well-being.

Tip Pool Violations

No one works harder for their money than people who receive a tip or gratuity as part of their compensation, ie. waiter, bartender. If your employer requires you to pool your tips and share them with employees who do not directly serve customers, please contact a tip pool violations attorney at the Kuvin Law Firm. We have helped clients receive retroactive compensation for every hour they worked for an employer who violated tip pool regulations.

An employee who regularly receives tips as a part of his or her pay also receives, under federal and Florida law, a minimum wage of $4.29/hr. In order to have this exemption from the minimum wage apply, the employee must regularly receive more than $30 per month in tips, and be allowed to keep all of his or her tips. The tips plus wages combined must add up to at least the $7.31 per hour minimum. A restaurant which includes a service charge on the check is not allowed to pay servers and other front of the house employees less than the full minimum wage of $7.31/hr.

Tip Pooling: Legal or Illegal?

Some employers require their employees to participate in a "tip pool," where they share their tips with others. Federal law provides that only certain employees are entitled to share in the tip pool. Specifically, only those people who "customarily receive tips" may participate in the tip sharing pool.

Examples of people who may properly share in the tip pool are: hosts, hostesses, busboys, and bartenders. Those who are not entitled to share in the tip pool include: service bartenders whose bar is in the kitchen, kitchen staff, assistant managers, store managers, expeditors, janitors, and other employees who do not regularly interact with the customers.

Tip pool violations are common. The result of tip pool violation litigation, however, can be significant.

FLSA vs. Florida Laws

The FLSA is federal employment legislation that was enacted in 1938 at the height of the Great Depression as an attempt to create more jobs and to protect the rights of workers.  It establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor standards/provisions affecting full-time and part-time workers in both the private and public sectors.  The Act has been amended several times in the past 70 years to expand coverage to more workers.  It is administered by the federal Department of Labor (DOL). The DOL can force a restaurant to pay you what they stole from you. A Labor Attorney can sometimes recover double and triple what the restaurant misappropriated.

If an employer violates the laws set forth in the FLSA, court usually will award damages (the lost wages) and liquidated damages (an amount equal to the lost wages) as a punishment. In addition to damages the FLSA has a provision that allows the court to award employee's attorney both fees and costs associated with having to litigate the claims. This way the employee who was short changed by their employer does not have to bear the burden of paying an attorney to recover money that was stolen from them.

How to File A Claim

The best way to file a claim is to contact an employment and labor attorney, one that specifically handles restaurant cases. Many law firms handle wage and hour claims, however, litigating restaurant cases is much more involved and difficult, especially if you have not worked in a restaurant.

Florida is a right to work state. The "right to work" is in addition to other rights as guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution. However, as mentioned above the State of Florida labor laws are very employer (business) friendly and less employee oriented. In a nut shell Florida law allows employees to recover exactly what was stolen from them by their employer along with attorney fees and costs. Unfortunately there is not a provision that allows for double or triple recovery by the employees to punish the employer for their transgressions. However, in almost all cases, employees can bring their suit under the FLSA which does allow for double and triple recovery.

Time Clock Irregularities

Local employment laws include both County as well as local Municipality ordinances. A good example of each would be Miami-Dade County as the local "county" law maker and the City of Miami Beach as a local municipality. These local laws are very important in that they may prohibit local employers from discriminating against employees for reasons that are not covered in either State or Federal laws. For example Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami Beach prohibit discrimination based on a persons sexual orientation, whereas the laws of the State of Florida and the U.S. Constitution do not.