Rough Waters: Navigating Labor Laws

For many small business owners, understanding labor and employment law can be seriously confusing. Paying an attorney to help explain labor law specifics can be extremely expensive, thus creating another road block. Still, for all business owners, understanding labor laws is paramount. For example, it is critical that business owners correctly determine whether the individuals providing services are employees or independent contractors. Generally, you must withhold income taxes, withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, and pay unemployment tax on wages paid to an employee. You do not generally have to withhold or pay any taxes on payments to independent contractors.

How do you classify an employee? People such as doctors, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, accountants, contractors, subcontractors, public stenographers, or auctioneers who are in an independent trade, business, or profession in which they offer their services to the general public are generally independent contractors. However, whether these people are independent contractors or employees depends on the facts in each case. The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. An individual is not an independent contractor if he or she performs services that can be controlled by an employer (what will be done and how it will be done). This applies even if he or she is given freedom of action. What matters is that the employer has the legal right to control the details of how the services are performed.

Overtime pay is also a sticky subject with many small business owners. Not surprisingly, overtime pay for employees is federally and statutorily regulated. An employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work. Employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek of at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime hours are worked on such days. The FLSA, with some exceptions, requires bonus payments to be included as part of an employee’s regular rate of pay in computing overtime.

Finally, employers providing benefit packages to employees must also comply with additional federal rules and regulations. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) regulates employers who offer pension or welfare benefit plans for their employees. Title I of ERISA is administered by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) (formerly the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration) and imposes a wide range of fiduciary, disclosure and reporting requirements on fiduciaries of pension and welfare benefit plans and on others having dealings with these plans. These provisions preempt many similar state laws. Under Title IV, certain employers and plan administrators must fund an insurance system to protect certain kinds of retirement benefits, with premiums paid to the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). EBSA also administers reporting requirements for continuation of health-care provisions, required under the Comprehensive Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) and the health care portability requirements on group plans under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Still confused? The most efficient way to ensure that your small business is compliant with the variety of applicable federal rules and regulations is to check with the secretary of state in the state where your business is located. Keeping up to date with labor laws is vital to the success of any business. Learn more about business maintenance HERE!