The federal wage and hour laws are a complex web of statutes, regulations, and interpretive opinion letters that can make even the most diligent employer’s compliance efforts extremely difficult. To assist with compliance, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently compiled its set of resources to ease the compliance burden and simplify ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time. Collecting these resources will assist employers by cutting down on the time needed to find and learn about these critical documents, leading to more productive compliance efforts.

The new site, released within the last week, offers employers a complete library of downloadable materials, including mandatory posters and critical interpretive guidance to help employers operate their businesses within the bounds of the regulations. Aimed at protecting the US employee (yet facilitating employer compliance), the  DOL’s resources direct employers (and to a degree, employees) to various necessary resources. Among them include:

• Information about the “Payroll Audit Independent Determination” (“PAID”) program. PAID is overseen by the DOL and facilitates the investigation of potential minimum wage and overtime violations under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

The new DOL site briefly explains what the PAID program does and directs visitors to the program’s website.

• Administrative opinions, ruling letters, and field bulletins

DOL administrative guidance carries the force of law for employers, and until now, many of the critical opinions and other forms of advice took extensive research to find. By linking these resources from the new resources page, the DOL feels more employers will take the time to educate themselves on these critical documents.

• laws Advisors

As the new site explains, laws Advisors are “interactive e-tools that provide easy-to-understand information about several federal employment laws.” Much like the articles on our site, The DOL’s experts provide their analysis on several critical wage and hour issues that will assist employers in making essential decisions that will impact their compliance with the FLSA and other employment laws. The site containing these documents is categorized by issue and is a user-friendly resource.

Finally, the DOL has used this new site to provide employers with other wage and hour compliance resources. They include:

• Posters, forms, fact sheets, compliance assistance toolkits, and small business resources

The posters are downloadable and printable documents that explain the law (such as minimum wage and overtime requirements) and are intended to be displayed (per the law) in employee breakrooms or other appropriate places. Likewise, the fact sheets can be displayed or distributed and help explain the nuances of the law. Going one step further, compliance assistance toolkits are. PDF documents that lay out the roadmaps for compliance with not just the FLSA but also the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) and industry-specific kits for guidance on issues in the restaurant and other vital industries.

Syntrio strongly encourages your business to become familiar with the resources available from the DOL and to bookmark the compilation page that is the subject of this article. Doing so in conjunction with providing training to your managers on the FLSA and state wage and hour law will save your business the substantial headaches that can come from compensation and hour class action litigation that costs employers millions of dollars in back pay and opposing party attorney fees.