EatNGas Inc: family-owned convenience store and gas station corporation

Fair Labor Standards Act

Vice President of EatNGas Inc.

It has come to the attention of the human resources department that EatNGas is potentially in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is a federal offense.

FLSA was founded in 1938 and established a standard for minimum wage, time-and-a-half for overtime, and child labor restrictions. Besides a few exempt employees which are protected in other ways, employers must comply to these laws for the protection of their employees (Grossman, n.d.).

The assistant manager position at EatNGas works fifty to sixty hours per work week and is exempt from overtime rates in exchange for a one dollar per hour raise. This is a violation of FLSA in the following ways:

FLSA requires that most employees in the United States be paid overtime at one and one-half of their regular rate for all hours worked over forty hours in one work week (Department of Labor, 2004).

There are exemptions to this; under Section 13(a)(1) of FLSA, employees exempt from overtime pay include executives, administrators, and professional and outside sales employees. Under Section 13(a)(1) and Section 13(a)(17), certain computer employees are also exempt (Department of Labor, 2011).

The job title does not determine an employee's exempt status, which is why job duties of EatNGas' assistant manager have been reviewed to determine their exempt or non-exempt status (Department of Labor, 2008).

If exempt, the assistant manager must be paid at a salary rate of at least $455 per week or $27.63 if paid by the hour (Department of Labor, 2008). If the assistant manager is salaried, it would require their annual salary to be $23,660, not the minimum $21,800 listed in the job description.