Each Arizona employer, and employers in other states, has the right to set its own pay schedule. Minimum wage laws in these states, however, mandate that once the payday is set, it must be honored. In Arizona and these other states, it is illegal for a company not to pay workers on the established payday.

Federal minimum wage law, established by FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938) follows the same tenet. An employer that doesn’t pay its employers on the established payday is violating the law.

This practice is illegal because by not paying employees on payday, the employer is essentially paying them nothing. Nothing is less than the legally mandated minimum wage, and is therefore against the law.

Enforcing these laws comes under the jurisdiction of either the U. S. Department of Labor, or the individual state’s Department of Labor. The Wage and Hour Division usually handles these cases for the federal government. State cases are handled by Wage and Hour, too, although the agency’s name often differs among states.

For the federal minimum wage law, companies qualify by earning over $500,000 annually or engaging in interstate commerce. Employees who handle products manufactured for sale in another state, makes or receives interstate telephone calls or orders and receives supplies from another state are also covered by the federal minimum, even if their employers do not do business with other states.

If an employee doesn’t receive his or her regular minimum wage earnings, the Department of Labor will assist him or her in recovering that money. The Labor Department does not involve itself in the recovery of benefits or additional monies, however, unless the state law mandates employers pay all promised monies.

In states without such legal mandates, employees may have to take their employers to small claims court, and/or hire a lawyer to recover those funds.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 am and is filed under Exempt Employee Laws, Labor & Employment Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.