An agency Web chat hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on Thursday, January 6, provided expected dates for proposed regulations on record-keeping under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the “Right to Know Under the Fair Labor Standards Act” initiative is expected in April 2011.
The proposed rule, which will further the department’s Plan/Prevent/Protect and Openness and Transparency goals, will be drafted to provide workers with essential information about their employment status and earnings, including notification of status as an employee or independent contractor as well as notification of whether the employee is exempt or nonexempt. The rules also may require employers to provide a wage statement containing this or other information to employees each pay period.
Because the proposed rule is still under development, further details about what will and won’t be included in the regulations are still sketchy; however, the department is hopeful that additional record-keeping requirements addressed in the regulations will reduce misclassification of employees.
The agency also announced that rules on the “companionship services” exemption for home care workers should be proposed in October 2011.
Learn how to correclty classifying workers in the Wage and Hour Compliance Manual