Payroll White Papers from ThePayrollResource.com

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 ("FMLA") is a federal law which entitles eligible employees to take up to twelve (12) weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a twelve-month period for certain family or medical reasons.

The threshold issue to address in determining whether ERISA, which stands for the Employee Retirement Security Income Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001, et seq., governs employee benefit plans or claims is to determine whether or not a "plan" exists within the meaning of the ERISA statute. It has been my experience that the issue as to whether or a "plan" exists under ERISA surfaces most frequently when an employer/defendant asserts that state law claims relating to the benefits at issue are preempted by ERISA. This manuscript will address ERISA preemption below, but a preliminary discussion of ERISA plans is essential to an understanding of when ERISA is applicable to a particular claim for benefits.

On April 20, 2004, the DOL announced its final overtime pay Regulations that substantially changed the criteria for overtime exemptions under the FLSA, effective August 23, 2004. According to DOL, these Regulations, called the "fair pay rules," were expected to expand overtime eligibility to an additional 6.7 million workers. Many of those workers (approximately 1.3 million) were expected to be entitled to overtime because their salaries were below the minimum salary level for exempt status.

The FLSA requires that nonexempt employees receive the minimum wage for all hours worked in a "workweek." A workweek is defined in the Regulations as any seven consecutive 24 hour periods. C.F.R.§778.105. An employer can decide the day that the workweek begins and may depart from the traditional Sunday through Saturday workweek if it desires. For example, an employer who wants to put both weekend days in the same workweek could start the workweek on Monday morning and end Sunday night.