Summer is just around the corner, which means students will be let out of school, pools will open for the season and amusement parks will roar back to life. These events are often intertwined, with local municipal facilities hiring students for lifeguards and concession stand employees. Amusement and water parks also post job openings on websites and job boards to fill hundreds of summertime openings. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 250,000 individuals take these jobs every year.

For teens and college students, this might seem like the ideal way to make money while school's out. However, hiring seasonal employees might prove to be complicated for employers because seasonal amusement and recreation establishments are not necessarily subject to the same labor laws that apply to other businesses.

No minimum wage or overtime?
Amusement parks and recreational facilities can save immensely on their payroll expenses if they qualify for an exemption from the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime provisions, because this means they don't have to pay time-and-a-half if summer staffers' employee attendance exceeds 40 hours in a week.

So how do they qualify? The FLSA dictates that amusement and recreational establishments are exempt if they can prove one of two things. The first is that they are only operational during seven months or fewer in a year. The second is that sales from six months out of the year (they do not have to be consecutive) account for 33.3 percent or less of its average totals during the highest-grossing six months.

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