Rhode Island Minimum Wage Law
As of January 1, 2007, the Rhode Island minimum wage is $7.40 per hour. Exemptions include Minors, 14-15 years of age working 24 hours or less. They may be paid 75% of the minimum wage = $5.55 per hour. If a minor works in excess of 24 hours, all hours must be paid at the minimum wage.
Recordkeeping
An employer must keep an accurate daily and weekly (time in and out) record for all employees. No one, including employees paid on a salary basis, is exempt from this law. These records, along with payroll records, must be kept for at least three years.
On every regular payday, the employer shall furnish to any employee a statement of the hours worked during the applicable pay period, a record of all deductions made from that employee’s gross earnings with an explanation of the basis or reason for such deductions.
Lunches and Rest Breaks
A twenty-minute meal period must be given during a six-hour shift, and a thirty-minute meal period must be given during an eight-hour shift. This does not include healthcare facilities or companies employing less than three employees at one site during a shift.Rhode Island Overtime Law
Under the Rhode Island Overtime Law, hours worked in excess of 40 per week are to be paid at time and one half the worker’s regular rate of pay.
Under Rhode Island Overtime Law, any employee of a summer camp open no more than six months of the year, police officers, firefighters and rescue service personnel employed by the cities and towns, employees of the state or political subdivisions of the state who elect through collective bargaining or other agreement or understanding to receive compensatory time off equal to one and one-half times the hours worked over 40, employees employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act receiving a salary of at least $200 per week (the salary divided by the number of hours worked must not violate the applicable minimum wage), salaried employee of a nonprofit national voluntary health agency who may elect compensatory time off for the hours worked in excess of 40, employees including drivers, driver’s helpers, mechanics and loaders of any motor carrier, including private carriers, with respect to whom the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service, employee employed as a salesperson or partsperson or mechanic primarily engaged in the sale and/or servicing of automobiles, trucks or farm implements and is employed by a non-manufacturing employer primarily engaged in the business of selling vehicles or farm implements provided that the earnings exceed an amount equal to the employee’s basis contractual hourly rate of pay times the number of hours actually worked plus the employee’s basic contractual hourly rate of pay times one-half the number of hours actually worked in excess of 40 hours per week.
To learn more about Rhode Island Wage and Hour Law and Rhode Island Overtime Law visit the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training at http://www.dlt.ri.gov/ls/
