Wage and hour laws – How labor laws set an impact on your employment life
Labor laws comprise wage and hour laws that mainly govern the rates of wages that an employer pays his employees and the total hours for which an employee should compensate his employees. Overtime laws and minimum wage laws are the two most popular wage and hour laws, for which you mostly need a wage and hour attorney.
If you’re an employee who wants to know about the details of wage and hour laws, you’ve clicked on the right post as we’re going to discuss them here. Keep reading to know more.
Overview of wages and benefits
Wages and job benefits are two of the most vital concerns related to employment for most workers. State and federal laws related to fair pay of employees and the right wage have been introduced over the last few years. It is pretty difficult to understand the rules governing employee benefit plans and so this is the area that you should keep in mind about the rights of employees.
WAGES
The minimum wage that an employer should pay an employee is set out by the state and federal laws. These laws also include when an employee should get overtime pay for working more than their set working hours. Whenever an employee fails to abide by these legal rules, this is called a violation of employment wages. Here are a few violations of law regarding employment wages:
- Inability to pay the accurate minimum wage
- Not giving overtime payment or ‘exempt’ employees being classified improperly
- Paying the lower ‘youth minimum wage’ or ‘training wage’ to workers who should be given more payment
- Deducting too much money in terms of tips
- Making the employees work ‘round the clock’ and not giving them such payment
- Deducting for wages that are paid in meals, goods, or food
Hence, the wage and hour laws are there to safeguard employees and to guarantee proper and fair treatment in terms of payment.
BENEFITS
There is a broad meaning of the term ‘benefits’. Benefits cover everything that an employee is entitled to receive apart from cash benefits. There are some benefits like medical and family leave, that are required under state and federal law. Such benefits don’t cost anything to an employer apart from the employees that are away from work.
Unlike non-cash benefits like medical and family leave, there are some optional benefits that have to be negotiated with your employer. Such benefits include dental insurance, disability insurance, and medical insurance. Though these are all optional, the employer is not bound by law to provide these to the employees. The majority of the pension plans and health benefits are governed by federal law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
There are many people all over the world that work constantly in terrible conditions in lieu of little pay. The US is a country that is fortunate enough to have several laws that protect the rights of workers in relation to the number of hours worked and the pay received.
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