Do you own or operate a business that requires any volume of staffing in Florida?
If so, then it’s crucial to possess a baseline understanding of employment law, particularly as it pertains to overtime. There are certain regulations businesses must follow when it comes to paying workers for the time they work beyond a typical work week (40 hours).
Here’s a quick glimpse at how that works in the Sunshine State.
Florida’s employment regulations (for paying overtime) closely reflect what you would find at the federal level under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). That legislation defined a “work week” as 40 hours of work within a seven-day period. Whenever a worker exceeds that work total, they are entitled to an overtime premium.
How much is that premium?
In most states, including Florida, the premium is 1.5 times the rate an employee would normally earn. So, if someone has a base pay of $20 per hour, and they work 50 hours in a week, you could calculate their paycheck as thus:
[$20 X 40 hours] + [$20 X 1.5 X 10 hours] = $1,100
That shows you how you would combine the regular time (first bracket) with the overtime hours (second bracket) to reach their total weekly wages.
Florida also awards manual laborers for any work they do beyond 10 hours per day. This gives them an additional premium along with what they receive for working past 40 hours a week (if applicable).
Obviously, there are employees who do not receive overtime pay for working past 40 hours a week. These are normally persons in salaried positions who are exempt from the FLSA and Florida laws for one of several reasons.
The penalties for violating overtime laws are similar in Florida as they are under the FLSA. If an employee notifies their employer of a discrepancy, and they don’t fix it, then they can file an unpaid-wages claim. If the courts rule in the employee’s favor, each infraction incurs a $1,000 fine onto the employer.
We hope this clears up any misperceptions regarding Florida’s overtime stipulations. Since this is only an introductory summary of overtime laws, we invite you to partner with Florida Resource Management to gain professional support with handling these matters.
Contact us anytime to discover the advantages of outsourcing some of your HR tasks (including overtime management) by calling 941-343-6160.