State Labor Guidance
Free state labor-agency opinion letters, administrative policies, and interpretive notices, with plain-English summaries, current status, and the official source on every page.
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Disciplinary deductions from an exempt employee's salary
An attorney e-mailed DLSE's Info Web Site asking whether an employer may dock a full week's pay from an exempt employee for disciplinary reasons, or deduct a lesser amount such as one or two days' pay…
The three-hour reporting-pay rule doesn't apply to a regularly-scheduled short on-call shift
An HVAC company asked whether the "three-hour rule" (455 C.M.R. §2.03(1)(a)) requires paying an on-call technician for three hours when a call-in repair takes only one hour to complete. DLS explained …
Riding a company truck to a job site: three scenarios on compensable travel time
An employer whose workers travel to job sites that change daily asked about the compensability of riding in company trucks in three scenarios: optional rides straight to the job site, required trips t…
Exempt employee: pro rata salary deduction on a 4-day workweek
A trade association asked, on behalf of a member, how much to deduct from an exempt employee's leave bank if that employee had voluntarily arranged to work only 4 days (about 10 hours each) per week a…
Car dealership repair mechanics qualify for the 'garageman' overtime exemption
An employer asked whether hourly wage mechanics working at car dealerships qualify for the overtime exemption for a "garageman" under M.G.L. c. 151, §1A(15), a term the statute leaves undefined. DLS a…
School bus drivers on non-reimbursed charter trips are owed the statutory minimum wage
A school bus company asked what minimum wage applies to drivers on three kinds of charter trips: adult passengers on charters outside the school district, students on trips not approved by the school …
Client social events, sales-rep car travel, and same-day flights are compensable; overnight-stay air travel is not
A company whose non-exempt employees provide product support to pharmaceutical and medical device clients asked whether three kinds of travel are compensable: required client social events, car travel…
No exempt-salary deduction for a full-day absence if the employer expects some duty
An employer group asked DLSE's Info Web Site whether an exempt employee who checks voicemail and e-mail for 10-15 minutes during an otherwise full-day vacation absence can still have that day's salary…
State law requires overtime only past 40 hours/week, regardless of bid-spec language
Contractors bidding on MassHighway projects asked about a bid-specification requirement citing the federal Contract Work Hours Standards Act of 1962 that appeared to require time-and-a-half after eigh…
Exempt employee: salary reduction tied to reduced hours or a shortened workweek
An employer posed five detailed scenarios asking whether cutting an exempt employee's salary destroys the exemption, ranging from a companywide across-the-board pay cut to a scheme pairing a salary cu…
Optional chartered-boat commuting to an island job site isn't compensable
A general contractor planning an island construction project considered chartering a boat to ferry workers and materials from the mainland daily and asked whether the boat travel time would be compens…
Salary basis requirements for exempt employees under Labor Code §515
Responding to an inquiry from the Chairman of the Industrial Welfare Commission, Labor Commissioner Arthur Lujan set out DLSE's enforcement position on the "monthly salary" requirement for exempt stat…
The truck-driver overtime exemption doesn't reach a truck loader/dock worker
An employer asked whether its overtime exemption for truck drivers, M.G.L. c. 151, §1A(8), covers an employee working as a "truck loader/dock worker." DLS explained the state exemption tracks a federa…
Rest period requirements: consecutive minutes and scheduling flexibility
An attorney asked DLSE two questions about the IWC wage orders' rest period requirement: whether the "net" ten minutes per four-hour work period must be taken consecutively, and what circumstances exc…
Hours worked: time spent traveling on an out-of-town business trip
A non-exempt employee asked whether he was entitled to pay for time spent flying to and from a mandatory out-of-town training class, after his employer's staff manual denied pay for travel outside nor…
Students in a residential school's vocational training programs aren't covered by the wage law
A private, for-profit residential school for children with emotional or behavioral problems asked whether two of its vocational training programs — a culinary-arts/food-service program and an "on-camp…
The state minimum wage law does not cover municipal employees
A resident forwarded a question through the Attorney General's Office asking whether the state minimum wage law applies to town employees. DLS explained that the Minimum Fair Wage Law's "occupation" d…
Hours worked: public transit employees who start and end shifts at different locations
A union and a regional transit district jointly asked whether bus and light-rail operators who are required to end a shift at a different location from where it began must be paid for the time spent t…
Rest period provisions: the authorize-and-permit standard under every wage order
An employer's counsel asked DLSE to confirm that the rest-period language common to every IWC wage order -- not just the construction-specific Wage Order 16 -- requires an employer only to "authorize …
A lower hourly rate for identical work in overtime hours is not permitted
An employer and union were considering letting regular full-time bargaining-unit employees pick up seasonal overtime work at the lower seasonal-employee rate ($8.50/hour) instead of their normal $13.6…
Casting workshop audition fees violate the ban on charging job applicants
A casting-workshop operator asked whether charging actors $25-$50 to attend a session where they audition briefly for a casting director (who in turn receives an honorarium from the organizer) violate…
State employees' overtime is governed by c. 149, not the minimum wage law
A state agency asked which statute governs overtime for its employees, what the statute of limitations is on a state employee's overtime claim, and whether the agency would face attorney's-fee and tri…
Variances from the Industrial Welfare Act
This brief L&I administrative policy explains that RCW 49.12.105 lets an employer apply to the L&I director for a variance from the department's Industrial Welfare Act rules (WAC 296-126) governing wa…
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Employee Wearing Apparel
This L&I administrative policy answers frequently asked questions about employee wearing apparel under RCW 49.12.450: minimum-wage earners can be required to buy common-color, dress-code-conforming cl…
Employee Wearing Apparel and Uniforms
This L&I administrative policy explains when an employer must pay for clothing it requires employees to wear, under RCW 49.12.450. Clothing that identifies the employee with a specific employer, bears…
Commissions, Piecework and Minimum Wage Requirements
This short L&I administrative policy sets out how the department verifies that commission- or piecework-paid workers (who are not otherwise exempt, such as outside salespersons) receive at least the a…
Special Education Student Exemption from Minimum Wage
This L&I administrative policy explains when a special-education student's unpaid work-experience placement, including a short unpaid workstation trial, is not considered "employment" under RCW 49.46.…
Examples of Retail Sales and Service Establishments
This L&I policy supplements ES.A.10.1 and ES.A.10.2 with two partial reference lists used to determine whether a business qualifies as a "retail or service establishment" for the commission overtime e…
Frequently Asked Questions: Retail/Service Establishment Sales Exception
This L&I FAQ supplements ES.A.10.1 and answers common questions about the retail/service establishment commission overtime exception under RCW 49.46.130(3): what happens to commission pay on separatio…
Log truck drivers are covered by Wage Order 9, not Wage Order 16
A logging-industry employer asked whether log truck drivers are covered by the on-site logging provisions of newly adopted Wage Order 16 or by the general transportation Wage Order 9. Drawing on corre…
Overtime for mixed prevailing-wage/private jobs uses a full-week weighted average
An employer asked DLS to recalculate how overtime pay is figured for employees who work both prevailing-wage and non-prevailing-wage jobs for the same employer in a single week. DLS announced this let…
Case managers at an alcohol/drug treatment center likely aren't exempt professionals
An alcohol/drug treatment center asked whether its case managers are exempt "professionals" under the minimum wage law, and separately whether the facility qualifies for the sanitorium overtime exempt…
Northeastern co-op students are exempt as trainees, not covered employees
An employer providing physical therapy services asked whether students it employed through Northeastern University's Cooperative Education Program are covered employees or exempt trainees. DLS conclud…
Extra travel time to a reassigned work site is compensable, any length of assignment
An employer asked about two scenarios where hourly employees normally assigned to one office are required to report instead to a different office, sometimes exceeding their normal commute. DLS confirm…
Rest-period scheduling under Wage Order 16
California construction-trades representatives asked how employers may schedule paid rest periods under Wage Order 16 for on-site construction, drilling, logging, and mining workers. DLSE said the ord…
Applicability of the state minimum wage to the California State University
The chief consultant to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment asked whether the state minimum wage applies to the California State University, given an Education Code provision limiting how n…
Overtime payment for Saturday and Sunday work on public works (prevailing wage) contracts
A school district equal-opportunity official asked DLSE whether a roofing contractor working weekends on a public school job owed Saturday/Sunday overtime under the governing prevailing wage determina…
Compensation for employee's stand-by time
An attorney asked, on behalf of a U.S. DOL certifying officer reviewing an alien employment certification, whether a "senior line operator" job requiring 24-hour on-call availability (with a cell phon…
Truck driver/transportation industry overtime exemption under IWC Order 9-2001
A petroleum-transport driver in Redding wrote to DLSE asking why he wasn't entitled to overtime despite working 12-15 hour days, since he'd been told IWC Wage Order 9's exemption for drivers regulated…
Whether meal periods during which employees are restricted to their employer's premises constitute hours worked
A union attorney asked whether an employer (Chevron Marketing) could lawfully require employees to remain on its premises during unpaid lunch breaks. DLSE said no: under every IWC wage order, any time…
Ski industry employee compensation issues
The California Ski Industry Association asked DLSE a series of questions about compensation practices unique to ski resorts. DLSE explained: unpaid "volunteers" at for-profit resorts are generally emp…
Farm labor contractor status
An attorney asked whether an "Agricultural Employer" that supplies vineyard labor along with plants, equipment, and materials — compensated by a share of the crop, a per-ton or per-acre rate, or expen…
Service charge in lieu of tip
An attorney for a private club asked whether an automatic 18% service charge added to members' bills — kept by the club, not distributed to staff — could be considered a gratuity under Labor Code sect…
Employers may agree to regular part-time shifts under three hours, paid hour-for-hour
A vocational agency serving clients with traumatic brain injuries, some of whom can work only two hours a day, asked whether the regulation requiring at least three hours' pay whenever an employee rep…
Whether Belo contracts are permissible under California law
An attorney asked whether "Belo-Type" or "Guarantee Wage" contracts — a federal Fair Labor Standards Act arrangement, from Walling v. A.H. Belo Corp. and codified at FLSA section 7(f), that lets emplo…
Employers can't require unpaid on-premises meal breaks, even if duty-free
An employer association asked the Attorney General's Office to reconsider its position and allow employers to require unpaid, duty-free meal breaks taken on the company premises. The AG's Office decli…
Deductions: debiting a manager's pay for staff salary and expenses; debits against insurance-sales commissions
At the request of a superior court judge presiding over a wage dispute, DLSE answered several questions about an insurance company's practice of debiting sales managers' pay. It concluded that debitin…
Independent contractor vs. employee: registered nurses contracting with a nursing registry
An attorney for a nurse staffing agency (Contract Management Services, Inc., "CMSI") asked DLSE to confirm that registered nurses placed with hospitals under its "RN Contractor's Agreement" are indepe…
Employment status of culinary externs
A culinary school president asked whether restaurants, hotels, and clubs hosting its students' unpaid externships must pay them wages. DLSE explained that no blanket ruling is possible: under the "eco…
Payment for Medical Exams as a Condition of Employment
This Field Operations Manual chapter explains Virginia Code § 40.1-28, which bars employers from requiring an employee or applicant to pay for a medical examination (including drug or TB tests) or for…
Preventing Employment By Others of Former Employee
This Field Operations Manual chapter covers Virginia Code § 40.1-27, which makes it a crime for an employer or its agent to willfully and maliciously prevent, or try to prevent, a former employee — wh…
Equal Pay Irrespective of Sex
This Field Operations Manual chapter explains Virginia's Equal Pay Irrespective of Sex Act, which requires equal pay and fringe benefits for men and women doing substantially equal work, for private-i…
AB-60 overtime requirements: no pyramiding of overtime hours
An attorney asked DLSE to confirm how overtime is calculated under AB 60, California's then-new overtime law, for an employee working 10-hour days, five days a week (50 hours total). DLSE confirmed th…
What constitutes a written contract for a definite period, for waiting-time penalty purposes
A law firm asked DLSE whether an employer faces waiting-time penalties under Labor Code section 203 when an employee with a written one-year contract quits and isn't paid final wages within 72 hours. …
Deductions for overpayment of wages
An employee asked DLSE what the law is when an employer overpays wages, and how DLSE enforces it. DLSE explained that under Barnhill v. Saunders and CSEA v. State of California, an employer cannot sim…
Administrative exemption does not apply to recruiters of temporary workers
A law firm asked DLSE whether recruiters at a temporary-staffing company qualify for California's administrative exemption from overtime, given they work 60-95 hours a week for a salary plus small dis…
DLSE will enforce third party beneficiary prevailing-wage claims
A private investigator asked DLSE to revisit its policy of declining to process wage claims brought by workers as third party beneficiaries of public or private construction contracts that require pay…
Rest periods: meaning of 'major fraction thereof' in the Wage Orders
An attorney asked DLSE to clarify the Wage Order phrase "4 hours or major fraction thereof" for calculating paid rest periods. DLSE confirmed the plain reading: an employee earns a 10-minute rest brea…
Payment of commissions upon termination of employment
A law firm asked DLSE when commissions must be paid to a terminated retail employee, and when waiting-time penalties begin and end, where the employer normally calculates and pays monthly commissions …
Tip pooling: parameters of a lawful arrangement
A law firm asked DLSE for the rules governing employer-mandated tip pooling in restaurants. Citing Leighton v. Old Heidelberg, DLSE confirmed employers may require tips to be pooled and shared among e…
How this guidance is useful
- See how the agency reads the law: An opinion letter shows how a state labor agency actually applied wage-and-hour law to a real employer's or worker's situation.
- Check the status before relying: Every page shows whether the document is still active or has been superseded, rescinded, or withdrawn, and when that status was last verified.
- Guidance, not law: These documents explain the agency's position but bind no court, and the agency can change its view. The official document linked on every page is the authoritative source.
- Research across states: Compare how different states treat the same question, from overtime and travel time to tips and independent-contractor status.