Federal and state wage and hour compliance remains one of the most critical responsibilities in the payroll department. This webinar focuses on the wage and hour requirements that payroll professionals must follow, including overtime calculation, travel time, minimum wage, posting requirements, meal and rest periods, pay frequency, approved methods of payment, and the rules for paying terminated employees. Attendees will gain practical insight into how these requirements affect payroll preparation and day-to-day compliance obligations.

The Department of Labor takes wage and hour violations very seriously, and the risks to employers continue to grow. In FY2025 alone, agency-initiated investigations found violations that resulted in fines and penalties exceeding $259 million. Civil lawsuits for wage and hour violations also remain a significant threat, with penalties severe enough to shake the financial foundations of even some of the world’s most successful companies. Join Vicki M. Lambert, CPP, “The Payroll Advisor,” for this information-packed webinar and get the knowledge you need to help protect your company from costly wage and hour mistakes and financial jeopardy.

This webinar provides valuable guidance for professionals responsible for payroll accuracy, wage and hour compliance, and reducing organizational risk. Attending will help you strengthen your knowledge, improve payroll practices, and better protect your company from costly violations, fines, and penalties.

8/80 Rule: The “8 and 80” exception allows employers to pay one and one-half times the employee's regular rate for all hours worked in excess of 8 in a workday and 80 in a fourteen-day period.

De Minimis: Too trivial or minor to merit consideration.

Department of Labor (DOL): The United States Department of Labor is a cabinet-level department of the U.S. federal government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, reemployment services, and some economic statistics; many U.S. states also have such departments.

Discretionary Bonus: The employer has the sole discretion, until at or near the end of the period that corresponds to the bonus, to determine the amount of the bonus; and the bonus payment is not made according to any prior contract, agreement, or promise causing an employee to expect such payments regularly.

Exempt : Exempt employee is a term that refers to a category of employees set out in the Fair Labor Standards Act. They do not receive overtime pay, nor do they qualify for the minimum wage

Expense: Offset (an item of expenditure) as an expense against taxable income.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 29 U.S.C. § 203 is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor".

Fringe Benefits: An extra benefit supplementing an employee's salary, for example, a company car, subsidized meals, health insurance, etc.

Living Wage: A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor productivity.

Minimum Wage: The lowest wage paid or permitted to be paid specifically fixed by a legal authority or by contract as the least that may be paid either to employed persons generally or to a particular category of employed persons.

Non-Discretionary Bonuses: A non-discretionary bonus is a bonus that the employee is expected to be paid and it is usually given at the same time, either monthly, quarterly or annually. Because these bonuses are agreed upon ahead of time, they must be included in the regular rate of pay and the calculation of overtime.

Non-Exempt: Non-exempt employees are workers who are entitled to earn the federal minimum wage for every hour they work. Such workers likewise qualify for overtime pay, which is calculated as one-and-a-half times their hourly rate, for every hour they work, above and beyond a standard 40-hour workweek.

Nondiscretionary Bonus: A nondiscretionary bonus is a bonus that fails to meet the statutory requirements of a discretionary bonus. Nondiscretionary bonuses are included in the regular rate of pay, unless they qualify as excludable under another statutory provision.

Overtime: Overtime is time and a half of what an employee earns for every hour worked over 40 in a workweek. The FLSA salary threshold is the minimum salary employers must pay employees for them to be exempt from overtime wages.

Prevailing Wage: In United States government contracting, a prevailing wage is defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime, paid to the majority of workers, laborers, and mechanics within a particular area. This is usually the union wage.

Regular Rate of Pay: An employee’s regular rate is the hourly rate an employee is paid for all non-overtime hours worked in a workweek. When calculating an employee’s regular rate, all compensation received by the employee in a workweek must be included, including wages, bonuses, commissions, and any other forms of compensation.

Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI): Temporary Disability Insurance provides cash benefits to workers who suffer an illness, injury, or other disability that prevents them from working, and wasn't caused by their job.

Travel Pay: Travel Pay is payment for expenses employees spend traveling for work-related activities. This could include airfare, trainfare, gas and milegae, and meals.

Wage: A fixed regular payment, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis, made by an employer to an employee, especially to a manual or unskilled worker.