There is no Georgia law that requires an employer to pay workers for unused vacation at termination. A number of U.S. states have such laws, but Georgia does not. Some Georgia employers pay workers for unused vacation at termination, but there is no law that every employer ... continue reading
While Arizona does not have a paternity leave law at the state level, many fathers are entitled to unpaid leave under the federal FMLA, the Family and Medical Leave Act. The FMLA allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month ... continue reading
There is no law that an Alabama employer must offer paid vacations to workers. This is entirely a matter of company policy. In fact, there is no law that an employer must offer even unpaid vacations (or time off) to employees. If an employer offers paid vacations ... continue reading
There is no federal law that requires most Florida small business owners to grant paid or unpaid maternity leave to employees. The primary law used for maternity leave in the U.S. is the federal FMLA, the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, the FMLA applies only to ... continue reading
Many Indiana exempt employees wonder if they are automatically entitled to comp time when they work more than 40 hours in the payroll week. The answer is “no.” Under both federal and Indiana law, an exempt employee can be required to work more than 40 hours per ... continue reading
A Minnesota employer writes, “We have hourly employees who report to the warehouse each day, and then go out on service calls in company vehicles. The travel time is paid. Can we avoid paying overtime for travel by coding the travel time separately in our payroll system?” ... continue reading
At least 18 states have made changes in their mini-COBRA laws since February 2009. In most cases, these changes were made to permit employees of smaller companies to take advantage of the federal COBRA subsidy under ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Mini-COBRA laws ... continue reading
Many people from Steve Carell of the popular TV sit-com The Office to advice columnist Dear Abby (Jeanne Phillips) inaccurately use the terms “sexual harassment” and “a hostile work environment” interchangeably. In reality, the two are very different. A hostile work environment occurs when a Wyoming ... continue reading
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that occurs when an Alaska employee is the focus of unwanted attention in the workplace due to his or her sex. Many employers mistakenly believe that in order for sexual harassment to occur, the employee must be promised a reward or ... continue reading
Many employees are surprised to learn that there is no Texas lunch law. Nor is there any federal law that an employer must provide meal breaks for employees in general industry. It is completely lawful for a Texas employer to require employees to work for 8, ... continue reading
Mississippi employees often object to taking unpaid meal breaks. They argue that since there is no state or federal law that requires meal breaks for Mississippi employees, it is optional. The Mississippi employees are partly right. Mississippi is one of 31 U.S. states including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, ... continue reading
Maryland employers and hourly workers both want to know if “comp time” can be granted in place of overtime pay. “Comp time,” incidentally, is paid time off in lieu of overtime. The answer to the question is “No,” under almost all circumstances. For example, a ... continue reading
In Maine, employees are entitled to a meal break that is a minimum of 30 minutes after 6 consecutive hours of work. The law includes exceptions for emergencies and where the nature of the work allows for frequent breaks throughout the workday. The law applies only where 3 or ... continue reading
The federal and Iowa minimum wage laws require employers to pay employees for all time worked. That seems like a fairly straight-forward requirement, but it can be difficult to determine what counts as time worked. Under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, work time includes ... continue reading
Under Colorado law, employees are entitled to a 30-minute meal break after 5 hours of work. This law applies to every employee except when the shift will be completed in 6 hours or less. The employee may be permitted to eat while on duty only when the nature of ... continue reading
Many exempt salaried employees in Minnesota have questions about the workweek. What is the standard workweek for a salaried employee? There is no standard workweek for Minnesota exempt employees under either state or federal law. This matter is determined entirely by company policy. Every employer is permitted ... continue reading
Comp time is time off in a future payroll week granted to an employee instead of overtime payment. Under the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act, private businesses cannot grant comp time instead of paying overtime. Comp time is legal for some state and federal employees, ... continue reading
Some Nevada employers stay open on holidays out of necessity. Some remain open by choice. In either case, it is entirely legal for them to schedule employees to work on those holidays. It sometimes comes as a shock to workers, but no Nevada law requires employers to ... continue reading
Just what is a “hostile work environment”? Many workers and employers in Kentucky misunderstand the concept of the “hostile work environment.” It is, in fact, the most misunderstood idea in the Human Resources field. It does not matter how rude, insulting or obnoxious a supervisor ... continue reading
It is illegal in New Mexico and elsewhere in the U.S. for a business to give an hourly employee “comp time” in lieu of overtime pay. “Comp” time is paid time off in place of paid overtime. Government agencies and non-profit organizations may grant comp time but ... continue reading
Children facing back-breaking work, exposure to pesticides, lack of an education, and failure to develop. Is this about the children of the developing world? No. These are a few of the problems facing children who are laboring in the farm fields of Wyoming and elsewhere in the ... continue reading
Nineteen states in the U.S. have passed legislation requiring employers to offer lunch breaks to their workers. Vermont is not one of them. There is no Vermont lunch law. Federal law, furthermore, offers little protection when it comes to meal breaks. Workers in Vermont are ... continue reading
It may be Thanksgiving. It may be Memorial Day or Labor Day. It may be Christmas. It does not matter. Employers in Connecticut are not required to give their employees a paid holiday. They need not give them the day off. They do not even have to ... continue reading
What is an example of a “hostile work environment”? What can an employee do to combat the problem? These are just two among the many questions about the concept of the hostile work environment that arise among Colorado employees. Questions come up because the concept is one ... continue reading
“Comp time” is sometimes appealing to both employers and employees in Arizona. Employers may want to use it to control payroll costs. Workers may like using it to take an afternoon off. The question, however, is whether “comp time” is legal in Arzona. The answer is that, ... continue reading
An ironclad cycle of poverty is being perpetuated in the farm fields of Arizona and in other farm states across the country. Children as young as 6 years old are harvesting crops when they should be in school. Regular violations of the child labor laws ... continue reading
There is a federal regulation requiring Alabama employers to grant workers restroom breaks. However, there is no law, however, requiring them to grant lunch breaks. Meal breaks enjoy little or no protection in Alabama. There is no Alabama lunch law and, with few exceptions, federal ... continue reading
If Georgia employers decide to schedule a worker on a holiday, no state law requires them to pay the worker a higher-than-usual wage. Nor does any federal law require payment of a premium. At the same time, if the employer chooses to close the business on a ... continue reading
The term “hostile work environment” is frequently heard but seldom understood, thanks to its misuse on sitcoms like The Office . In Delaware, for example, many employees have questions about just what constitutes a hostile work environment. Does it refer to any rude or bullying boss, or ... continue reading
Employees in Maine and elsewhere in the country are entitled to overtime pay when they work more than 50 hours a week. Except in some very specific circumstances, employers may not grant “comp time” instead of overtime pay to hourly workers. “Comp time,” for those ... continue reading
