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S.F. No. 641 - Federal Labor Law Conformity
 
Author: Senator Dan Sparks
 
Prepared By:
 
Date: March 4, 2013



 

BACKGROUND

There are both state and federal minimum wages.  Employers in the state must pay the higher of the applicable state or federal minimum wage.  The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.  The current federal wage generally applies to covered employees of employers who have annual gross volume of sales made or business done of $500,000 or more.  The current state minimum wage for large employers is $6.15 an hour and for small employers is $5.25 an hour.  A large employer is defined as an enterprise whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $625,000.  A small employer is less than $625,000.  The state also has a youth or training wage of $4.90 an hour for persons under the age of 20 for the first 90 consecutive days of work.  There are some types of employers and some types of employees that are exempted from minimum wage coverage under both federal and state law.

This bill amends various state labor laws including the state minimum wage law.

Section 1 amends the exclusion of certain agricultural employees from state minimum wage and overtime requirements by lowering the amount of wages those individuals must work to be excluded.

Section 2 eliminates the separate state minimum wage requirement for large and small employers.  All covered employers are required to pay covered employees the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour beginning August 1, 2013.  The youth or training wage is not altered.

Section 3 amends current law to reduce from 48 to 40 hours the number of hours that must be worked in a week to trigger the requirements of overtime pay of at least 1.5 times the regular wage rte.

Section 4 is a conforming amendment made necessary by section 3.

Section 5 increases from 6 to 12 weeks the unpaid leave for birth or adoption of a child that an employer must grant.

Section 6 is a conforming amendment necessitated by section 5.

The bill has an effective date of September 1, 2013.

JCF/syl

 
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