Common small business misconceptions

Whether your business has to track employee attendance for just a few workers or hundreds of members of a dozen different departments, overtime standards almost always apply.

Even if your operation qualifies as a small business for other purposes, like an exemption for the Affordable Care Act, overtime must be paid to non-exempt workers putting in more than 40 hours in a seven-day period, according to lawyer R. Scott Alagood. Companies need to use appropriate employee tracking methods to ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

While the FLSA only regulates enterprises engaged in interstate commerce, that phrase has been interpreted in extremely broad terms, the Texas Workforce Commission reported. Businesses need only have a tangential association with some sort of aspect that could include customers, products, supplies or services from another state. Simply being situated near an interstate or federal highway is enough for a business to fall under the FLSA's purview.

Alagood points out that the FLSA's area of coverage has a wide range and has been interpreted by various courts in that manner. Employers need to make sure they have attendance tracking software and employee management systems that keep accurate records and provide documentation for issues like overtime.


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