Articles Discussing FLSA Record Keeping Requirements.

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to represent and advise a number of small businesses on wage and hour issues. Small businesses are understandably reticent to spend money on legal fees, so my first contact with many of these clients tends to be after they are served with a summons or visited by a DOL investigator looking into complaints of wage and hour violations.

Remember those Guinness commercials from the early 2000s with the tagline “Good things come to those who wait” (or maybe, if you predate the no-mess squeeze bottles, you remember the Heinz ketchup commercials with the same tagline from the 1980s)? In wage and hour law, good things come to those who document good wage and hour practices.

For roughly the last two years, the U.S. Department of Labor has been contemplating (some would say “threatening”) revisions to the recordkeeping regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act that would require an employer who classifies an employee as exempt to prepare a written justification of the basis for the exemption. This document would have to be provided to the employee and would be subject to inspection by the Department of Labor. For obvious reasons, many employers strongly disfavor this proposal.