Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards
Act (FLSA)
This fact sheet provides a summary of the FLSA's recordkeeping
Regulations, 29 CFR Part 516.
Records To Be Kept By Employers.
Highlights: The FLSA sets minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping
and child labor standards for employment subject to its provisions.
Unless exempt, covered employees must be paid at least the minimum
wage and not less than one and one-half times their regular
rates of pay for overtime hours worked.
What Records Are Required: Every covered employer must keep
certain records for each non-exempt worker. The Act requires
no particular form for the records, but does require that the
records include certain identifying information about the employee
and data about the hours worked and the wages earned. The law
requires this information to be accurate. The following is a
listing of the basic records that an employer must maintain:
1. Employee's full name and social security number.
2. Address, including zip code.
3. Birth date, if younger than 19.
4. Sex and occupation.
5. Time and day of week when employee's workweek begins.
6. Hours worked each day.
7. Total hours worked each workweek.
8. Basis on which employee's wages are paid (e.g., "$6
an hour", "$220 a week", "piecework")
9. Regular hourly pay rate.
10. Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings.
11. Total overtime earnings for the workweek.
12. All additions to or deductions from the employee's wages.
13. Total wages paid each pay period.
14. Date of payment and the pay period covered by the payment.
What About Timekeeping?: Employers may use any timekeeping method
they choose. For example, they may use a time clock, have a
timekeeper keep track of employee's work hours, or tell their
workers to write their own times on the records. Any timekeeping
plan is acceptable as long as it is complete and accurate.
The following is a sample timekeeping format employers may follow
but are not required to do so:
DAY
DATE IN OUT TOTAL HOURS
Employee Name:
Sunday 5/2/93 --------
Monday 5/3/93 8:00 12:02
1:00 5:03 8
Tuesday 5/4/93 7:57 11:58
1:00 5:00 8
Wednesday 5/5/93 8:02 12:10
1:06 5:05 8
Thursday 5/6/93 --------
Friday 5/7/93 --------
Saturday 5/8/93 --------
Total Workweek Hours 24
Employees on Fixed Schedules: Many employees work on a fixed
schedule from which they seldom vary. The employer may keep
a record showing the exact schedule of daily and weekly hours
and merely indicate that the worker did follow the schedule.
When a worker is on a job for a longer or shorter period of
time than the schedule shows, the employer must record the
number of hours the worker actually worked, on an exception
basis.
How Long Should Records Be Retained: Each employer shall preserve
for at least three years payroll records, collective bargaining
agreements, sales and purchase records. Records on which wage
computations are based should be retained for two years, i.e.,
time cards and piece work tickets, wage rate tables, work
and time schedules, and records of additions to or deductions
from wages. These records must be open for inspection by the
Division's representatives, who may ask the employer to make
extensions, computations, or transcriptions. The records may
be kept at the place of employment or in a central records
office.
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