• Sec. 387-1 Definitions
• Sec. 387-3 Maximum hours
• Sec. 387-4 Wage discrimination prohibited
• Sec. 387-4.5 Provisions of law may not be waived by agreement

Sec. 387-1 Definitions. As used in this chapter:

• "Agriculture" means agriculture as defined in section 3(f) of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, or as the same may be amended from time to time.
• "Department" means the department of labor and industrial relations.
• "Director" means the director of labor and industrial relations.
• "Employ" includes to permit or suffer to work.
• "Employee" includes any individual employed by an employer, but shall not include any individual employed:

(1) At a guaranteed compensation totaling $1,250 or more a month, whether paid weekly, biweekly, or monthly;

(2) In agriculture for any workweek in which the employer of the individual employs less than twenty employees or in agriculture for any workweek in which the individual is engaged in coffee harvesting;

(3) In domestic service in or about the home of the individual's employer or as a house parent in or about any home or shelter maintained for child welfare purposes by a charitable organization exempt from income tax under section 501 of the federal Internal Revenue Code;

(4) By the individual's brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, son, daughter, spouse, parent, or parent-in-law;

(5) In a bona fide executive, administrative, supervisory, or professional capacity or in the capacity of outside salesperson or as an outside collector;

(6) In the propagating, catching, taking, harvesting, cultivating, or farming of any kind of fish, shellfish, crustacea, sponges, seaweeds, or other aquatic forms of animal or vegetable life, including the going to and returning from work and the loading and unloading of such products prior to first processing;

(7) As a seaman;

(8) As a driver of a vehicle carrying passengers for hire operated solely on call from a fixed stand;

(9) As a golf caddy;

(10) By a nonprofit school during the time such individual is a student attending such school;

(11) In any capacity if by reason of the employee's employment in such capacity and during the term thereof the minimum wage which may be paid the employee or maximum hours which the employee may work during any workweek without the payment of overtime, are prescribed by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, or as the same may be further amended from time to time; provided that if the minimum wage which may be paid the employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act for any workweek is less than the minimum wage prescribed by section 387-2, then section 387-2 shall apply in respect to the employees for such workweek; provided further that if the maximum workweek established for the employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act for the purposes of overtime compensation is higher than the maximum workweek established under section 387-3, then section 387-3 shall apply in respect to such employee for such workweek; except that the employee's regular rate in such an event shall be the employee's regular rate as determined under the Fair Labor Standards Act;

(12) As a seasonal youth camp staff member in a resident situation in a youth camp sponsored by charitable, religious, or nonprofit organizations exempt from income tax under section 501 of the federal Internal Revenue Code or in a youth camp accredited by the American Camping Association; or

(13) As an automobile salesperson primarily engaged in the selling of automobiles or trucks if employed by an automobile or truck dealer licensed under chapter 437.

• "Employer" includes any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal representative, or any organized group of persons, acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, but shall not include the State or any political subdivision thereof or the United States.
• "Industry" means a trade, business, industry, or branch thereof, or group of industries in which individuals are employed.
• "Seasonal pursuit" means one in which it is customary in each year for the volume of employment in such pursuit to be substantially increased during a regularly recurring period or periods of seasonal activity, and in the remainder of the year, owing to climate or other natural conditions, for the volume of employment to be substantially decreased. Periods of seasonal activity shall be considered as "regularly recurring", within the meaning of this paragraph, notwithstanding that such periods may vary from year to year.
• "Tipped employee" means any employee engaged in an occupation in which the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $20 a month in tips.
• "Wage" means (except as the department may provide under section 387-11) legal tender of the United States or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value thereof and in addition thereto the reasonable cost as determined by the department, to the employer of furnishing an employee with board, lodging, or other facilities if such board, lodging, or other facilities are customarily furnished by such employer to the employer's employees. Except for the purposes of the last sentence of section 387-2, "wage" shall not include tips or gratuities of any kind.
• "Week" or "workweek" means a fixed and regularly recurring period of seven consecutive days.

Sec. 387-3 Maximum hours.

(a) No employer shall, except as otherwise provided in this section, employ any employee for a workweek longer than forty hours unless the employee receives overtime compensation for the employee's employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which the employee is employed.

For the purposes of this section,

(1) "Salary" means a predetermined wage, exclusive of the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, at which an employee is employed each pay period;

(2) If an employee performs two or more different kinds of work for the same employer, the total earnings for all such work for the pay period shall be considered to have been earned for performing one kind of work.

(b) The regular rate of an employee who is employed on a salary shall be computed as follows:

(1) If the employee is employed on a weekly salary, the weekly salary and the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, if furnished to the employee, shall be divided by forty.

(2) If the employee is employed on a biweekly salary, the biweekly salary and the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, if furnished to the employee, shall be divided by two and the quotient divided by forty.

(3) If the employee is employed on a semi-monthly salary, the semi-monthly salary and the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, if furnished to the employee, shall be multiplied by twenty-four, the product divided by fifty-two and the quotient divided by forty.

(4) If the employee is employed on a monthly salary, the monthly salary and the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities if furnished to the employee, shall be multiplied by twelve, the product divided by fifty-two and the quotient divided by forty.

(c) The regular rate of an employee who is employed on a salary and in addition receives other wages such as, but not limited to, commissions, bonus, piecework pay, and hourly or daily pay shall be computed in the manner provided in this subsection. As used hereinabove, the term "other wages" shall not include the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities.

(1) If the employee's salary and the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, if furnished to the employee, equal or exceed fifty per cent of the employee's total earnings for the pay period, the total earnings shall be reduced to a regular rate in the manner provided in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b), whichever is applicable.

(2) If the employee's salary and the reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, if furnished to the employee, are less than fifty per cent of the employee's total earnings for the pay period, the total earnings shall be reduced to a regular rate in the manner provided in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b), whichever is applicable, except that the actual number of hours worked in the workweek shall be substituted for the final divisor of forty. Such an employee shall receive overtime compensation for employment in excess of forty hours in a workweek at a rate not less than one-half times the employee's regular rate.

(d) The regular rate of an employee whose compensation is based on other than salary shall be computed in the manner provided in paragraph (2) of subsection (c). The reasonable cost of board, lodging, or other facilities, if furnished to the employee, shall be included in computing the employee's regular rate. Such an employee shall receive overtime compensation for such employment in excess of forty hours in a workweek at a rate not less than one-half times the employee's regular rate.

(e) An employer,

(1) Who is engaged in agriculture and in the first processing of milk, buttermilk, whey, skim milk, or cream into dairy products, or in the processing of sugar cane molasses or sugar cane into sugar (but not refined sugar) or into syrup, or in the first processing of or in canning or packing any agricultural or horticultural commodity, or in handling, slaughtering, or dressing poultry or livestock; or

(2) Who is engaged in agriculture and whose agricultural products are processed by an employer who is engaged in a seasonal pursuit or in processing, canning, or packing operations referred to in paragraph (1); or

(3) Who is at any place of employment engaged primarily in the first processing of, or in canning or packing seasonal fresh fruits;

shall not be required to pay overtime compensation for hours in excess of forty in a workweek to any of the employer's employees during any of twenty different workweeks, as selected by the employer, in any yearly period commencing July 1, for employment in any place where the employer is so engaged. The employer, however, shall pay overtime compensation for such employment in excess of forty-eight hours in any such exempt workweek at the rate and in the manner provided in subsections (a), (b), (c) and (d), whichever is applicable, except that the word "forty-eight" shall be substituted for the word "forty" wherever it appears in subsections (b), (c), and (d).

(f) No employer shall employ any employee in split shifts unless all of the shifts within a period of twenty-four hours fall within a period of fourteen consecutive hours, except in case of extraordinary emergency.

(g) This section shall not apply to any overtime hours worked by an employee of an air carrier subject to Title II of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. section 181 et seq.; provided such overtime hours are the result of a voluntary agreement between employees to exchange work time or days off.

Sec. 387-4 Wage discrimination prohibited.

No employer shall discriminate in any way in the payment of wages as between persons of different races or religions or as between the sexes; provided that nothing herein shall prohibit a variation of rates of pay for employees engaged in the same classification of work based upon a difference in seniority, length of service, substantial difference in duties or services performed, difference in the shift or time of day worked, or hours of work; and provided that an employer who is paying a wage rate differential in violation of this section shall not, in order to comply with this section, reduce the wage rate of any employee.

Sec. 387-4.5 Provisions of law may not be waived by agreement.

No provision of this chapter may in any way be contravened or set aside by private agreement.

Sec. 387-6 Employer's records; posting of notices; furnishing of pay data; director's rights and duties.

(a) Every employer shall keep in or about the premises wherein any employee is employed a record of the name, address, and occupation of each such employee, of the amount paid each pay period to each such employee, of the hours worked each day and each workweek by each such employee, and of such other information and for such periods of time as the director of labor and industrial relations may by regulation prescribe. The director or the director's authorized representative shall for the purpose of examination have access to and the right to copy from such records. Every employer shall furnish to the director or the director's authorized representative such information relating to the employment of workers and in such manner as the director may prescribe.

(b) Every employer shall post and keep posted such notices pertaining to the application of the law as shall be prescribed by the director in conspicuous places in every establishment where any employee is employed so as to permit the employee to observe readily a copy on the way to or from the employee's place of employment.

(c) Every employer shall furnish each employee at every pay period a legible printed, typewritten or handwritten notice showing the employee's

(1) total hours worked,
(2) overtime hours,
(3) straight-time compensation,
(4) overtime compensation,
(5) other compensation,
(6) total gross compensation,
(7) amount and purpose of each deduction,
(8) total net compensation,
(9) date of payment, and
(10) pay period covered.

(d) The director shall cause this chapter to be printed and copies thereof shall be furnished to interested persons upon request without charge. Copies of orders of the director and of rules and regulations of the director shall also be furnished to employers affected thereby without charge.

(e) Every employer shall permit the director or the director's authorized representative to confer with and interrogate any employee of the employer at the place of employment and during working hours with respect to any matter cognizable under this chapter.

Sec. 387-7 Wilful violations; penalty.

Any employer who wilfully hinders or delays the director of labor and industrial relations or the director's authorized representative in the performance of the director's duties in the enforcement of this chapter; or who wilfully refuses to admit the director or the director's authorized representative to any place of employment; or who fails to keep or who falsifies any record required under section 387-6 or who refuses to make such records accessible or to give information required for the proper enforcement of this chapter, upon demand, to the director or the director's authorized representative shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.

Sec. 387-8 Disclosure of information.

Except as otherwise provided herein, information secured from inspection of the records, or from the transcriptions or from the taking of transcriptions thereof, or from inspection of the employer's premises by the director of labor and industrial relations or the director's authorized representative, shall be held confidential and shall not be disclosed or be open to any person. The information may be made available:

(1) To officials concerned with, and for the purposes of, the administration of the laws relating to matters under the jurisdiction of the director;

(2) To any agency of this or any other State, or any federal agency for the purposes of enforcing this chapter;

(3) To any employee to the extent necessary for the proper presentation of the employee's claim under section 387-12;

(4) To the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions of the United States Department of Labor.

Sec. 387-10 Oaths; affidavits; subpoenas; witnesses; immunities.

The director of labor and industrial relations or the director's authorized representative may administer oaths, take or cause to be taken the depositions of witnesses, and require by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of all books, records, and other evidence relative to any matter under investigation. The subpoena shall be signed and issued by the director or the director's authorized representative. In cases of failure of any person to comply with any subpoena lawfully issued under this section or on the refusal of any witness to produce evidence or to testify to any matter regarding which the witness may be lawfully interrogated, any circuit court, or the judge thereof, upon the application of the director or the director's authorized representative, shall compel obedience by proceedings for contempt, as in the case of disobedience of the requirements of a subpoena issued by the court or a refusal to testify therein. The director may certify to official acts.

No person shall be excused from attending and testifying or from producing books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, contracts, agreements, or other records and documents before the director or the director's authorized representative, or in obedience to the subpoena of the director or the director's authorized representative, or in any cause or proceeding instituted under this chapter, on the ground that the testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of the person may tend to incriminate the person or subject the person to a penalty or forfeiture; but no individual shall be prosecuted or subject to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which the individual is compelled to testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, after having claimed the individual's privilege against self-incrimination, except that the individual so testifying shall not be exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury committed in so testifying.

Sec. 387-11 Rules and regulations.

The department of labor and industrial relations may make, issue, amend, and rescind such rules and regulations as are necessary or appropriate to carry out this chapter. The rules and regulations, without being limited thereto, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, may define terms used in this chapter, may include such terms and conditions, including the restriction or prohibition of industrial homework or of such other acts or practices, as the department finds necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this chapter, and to prevent the circumvention or evasion thereof and to safeguard the standards therein established; and shall include such partial or total restrictions or prohibitions on the employment (notwithstanding the payment of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay) of employees in excess of the hours specified in the first paragraph of section 387-3 as the department finds necessary to prevent the reduction of wage rates for the purpose of evading the penalizing effect of the overtime compensation provisions of the first paragraph of section 387-3 or the circumvention by other devices of the intent of such paragraph to reduce hours of labor; and shall provide for reasonable deductions from the minimum wage applicable under this chapter for board, lodging, or other similar services furnished by an employer to the employer's employees.

Rules and regulations of the department issued pursuant to this section which relate to industrial homework or to employment in excess of the hours specified in the first paragraph of section 387-3 shall be made only after notice to interested persons and a public hearing by the department at which such persons may be heard.

Sec. 387-12 Penalties; collection of unpaid wages; injunctions; etc.

(a) Criminal.

(1) Any person divulging information in violation of section 387-8, or

(2) any employer who wilfully violates this chapter or of any rule, regulation, or order issued under the authority of this chapter, or

(3) any employer or the employer's agent or any officer or agent of a corporation who discharges or in any other manner discriminates against any employee because the employee has made a complaint to the employee's employer, to the director, or to any other person that the employee has not been paid wages in accordance with this chapter, or has instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceedings, or

(4) any employer or the employer's agent or any officer or agent of a corporation who pays or agrees to pay any employee compensation less than that which the employee is entitled to under this chapter, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $500 or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed one year or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(b) Liability to employee. Any employer who violates any provision of sections 387-2 and 387-3 shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation, and in case of wilful violation in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.

(c) Collection suits; attorney's fee; assignments; relief from costs. Action to recover such liability may be maintained in any court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees for and in behalf of oneself or themselves and other employees similarly situated, or the employee or employees may designate an agent or representative to maintain action for and in behalf of all employees similarly situated. The court in such action shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, in the event the plaintiff or plaintiffs prevail, allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant and costs of the action. At the request of any person paid less than the amount to which the person is entitled under this chapter, the director may take an assignment in trust for the assigning employee of the full amount to which the employee is entitled under this subsection and may bring any legal action necessary to collect the claim, and the employer shall be required to pay the costs and such reasonable attorney's fees as may be allowed by the court in the event the director prevails. The director shall not be required to pay the filing fee or other costs in connection with such action, including the opposing party's attorney's fees and costs. The director, in case of suit, may join various claimants against the same employer in one cause of action. The right provided by this subsection to bring an action by or on behalf of any employee, and the right of any employee to become a party plaintiff to any such action, shall terminate upon the filing of a complaint by the director in an action in which restraint is sought of any further delay in the payment of unpaid minimum wages, or the amount of unpaid overtime compensation owing to the employee under section 387-2 or 387-3 by an employer liable therefor under this section.

(d) Injunctions.

(1) Whenever it appears to the director that any employer is engaged in any act or practice which constitutes or will constitute a violation of this chapter, or of any regulation, the director may in the director's discretion bring an action in the circuit court of the circuit in which it is charged the act or practice complained of occurred to enjoin the act or practice and to enforce compliance with this chapter or with the regulation, and upon a proper showing, a permanent or temporary injunction or decree or restraining order shall be granted without bond.

(2) The circuit courts shall have jurisdiction, for cause shown, to restrain any withholding of payment of minimum wages or overtime compensation found by the court to be due to employees under section 387-2 or 387-3.

(e) Restitution of illegal deductions; effect of. Whenever in the course of an inspection made for the purposes of this chapter it is determined that there has been an illegal deduction of wages under chapter 388, the director or the director's authorized representative may secure restitution of such deductions. If the restitution is made, no prosecution under chapter 388 shall be instituted or maintained.

Sec. 387-13 Right of collective bargaining protected.

Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to interfere with, impede, or in any way diminish the right of employees to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing in order to establish wages in excess of the applicable minimum under this chapter, or to establish hours of work shorter than the applicable maximum under this chapter.