US DEPARTMENT of LABOR: FALL REGULATORY AGENDA 2009
Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
Topic: WHD’s NPRM: Amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Recordkeeping Regulations
This regulatory initiative will support the Secretary's outcome goals of securing minimum wages and overtime particularly in high-risk industries and helping middle-class families remain in the middle class.
Key Action: WHD intends to update the recordkeeping requirements to foster openness and transparency by requiring employers comply with minimum wage and overtime requirements for their employees by disclosing how many hours were worked in the period, how pay has been computed, what deductions are being made, and whether proper time and one-half overtime pay has been included for overtime hours worked for each pay period.
Key Issues
The current recordkeeping rules require employers to keep the specified payroll records but do not require that information to be shared with the workers each payday. This is an issue of transparency.
Background
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to keep records on wages, hours and other items, as specified in recordkeeping regulations that were established to ensure compliance with the various provisions of the statute. Most of the information is of the kind generally maintained by employers in their ordinary business practices. Required records include: the employee's name, address, date of birth (if under 19 years of age), hours worked per day and per week, employee's regular rate of pay (nonovertime rate), amount of regular pay and overtime pay for each workweek, and any deductions from or additions to the employee's pay.
Additional information is required for certain categories of workers, including home-based workers, employees working under uncommon pay arrangements, employees to whom lodging or other facilities are furnished, and for other special requirements. The regulations also specify the records an employer must keep in order to confirm that particular exemptions from some of the FLSA's requirements may apply.
Updating the recordkeeping requirements to promote transparency is expected to encourage greater levels of compliance by employers, enhance awareness among workers of their status as an employee or independent contractor and their rights and entitlements to minimum wages and overtime pay, and facilitate DOL enforcement.
In addition, WHD also intends to modernize certain other recordkeeping requirements consistent with the increasing emphasis on "flexiplace" and "telecommuting" work arrangements. Modernization of the recordkeeping requirements will allow for automated and electronic recordkeeping systems and methods to take the place of mandatory paper records that are currently required in some instances for employees who work under such arrangements.
