The Florida legislature has passed its labor laws to reflect its federal equivalent: the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Although there are some differences between the two, both laws are very similar in definition and procedure.
What is a legal work day under Florida law?
Under Florida law, a legal workday equals to ten (10) hours. This is different to the FLSA, where it defines a legal workday as eight (8) hours. However, despite the ten-hour workday, both Florida and the FLSA define a legal work week as being forty (40) hours. This means that under both Florida and Federal law, if a full-time employee works more than 40 hours a work week, they are entitled to overtime pay.
However, both under Florida law and Federal law, there are certain exceptions as to who does not qualify for overtime pay, such as those being paid a salary such as professionals. Some examples of professionals include: nurses, police officers, lawyers, and accountants.
Even more, if you qualify for overtime pay and do not fall under one of the exceptions under either Florida law or the FLSA, you are entitled to one and a half (1 ½) of your normal hourly wage. Therefore, under Florida, with a minimum wage of $10 per hour, you would be entitled to $15 per hour for overtime pay. Nevertheless, you should note that this minimum wage is subject to change every September pursuant to Florida’s most recent labor legislation which aims to raise the minimum wage by one US dollar every year until it reaches $15 per hour.
How often should you be paid?
Under Florida law, all paychecks must be due for regular pay periods of no greater than one calendar month, or thirty (30) days, whichever is longer. However, this does not take into consideration the reimbursement payment period that is owed to an employee. Furthermore, you should take into consideration that there are different methods of payment such as: (1) weekly, (2) bi-weekly, (3) bi-monthly, and (4) monthly. There are other methods of payments, however, the ones mentioned above are the most common ones in Florida; thus, how often you should be paid depends on how your employer intends to pay you, but they must still follow the Florida paycheck law mentioned above.
