Blog: Wage & Hour

Child labor rules are among the few payroll compliance areas where a violation can carry criminal exposure and where penalties are assessed per violation with substantially higher amounts where an injury results. They are also among the most state-variable, with state law frequently stricter than federal law on every dimension.

The structure is straightforward once separated: age determines what work is permitted, age determines what hours

Tipped payroll carries more conditions per dollar than any other pay arrangement. The tip credit — the mechanism permitting a cash wage below the minimum — is available only where several requirements are satisfied continuously, and failing any one of them forfeits the credit entirely, retroactively, for every affected employee.

That all-or-nothing structure is what makes this area expensive. The remedy for a defective tip credit is not an adjustment; it is paying the full minimum ...

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since 2009 — the longest period without an increase since the standard was established. For a large share of the American workforce it is not the operative figure, because a higher state, county, or city rate applies.

The practical consequence for employers is that minimum wage compliance has become almost entirely a state and local exercise, on schedules that do not align, with several figures that ...

Two things about federal overtime changed direction between 2024 and 2026, and an employer working from a two-year-old memo is almost certainly wrong about both. The salary threshold that was supposed to rise did not. And a new federal reporting obligation attached to overtime that did not exist before.

This guide states the current position on both, then covers the mechanics that have not changed — and where the actual liability lives, which is not the threshold everyone ...