New Maryland Break Law

March 23rd, 2011 Posted by Cara

The Maryland Healthy Retail Employee Act is the state’s first law requiring meal and rest breaks for workers in certain occupations. The law went into effect on March 1, 2011 and covers stores with 50 or more workers. It does not cover restaurants or wholesale dealers. The law also excludes mail-order or Internet sales businesses when more than 50% of sales occur without the customer physically present in the store.

 

Under the new , employees are entitled to a 30-minute on a shift of 6 consecutive hours or more. This can be unpaid, but employees must be relieved of all work duties.

 

The law also requires shorter 15-minute breaks under some conditions. A Maryland retail who works a shift of 4 to 6 hours is entitled to a non-working break of at least 15 minutes, but is not entitled to a 30-minute break.

 

An employee who works 8 or more hours must be given the 30-minute break plus a non-working break of 15 minutes for every four additional consecutive hours. For example, an employee who works 16 consecutive hours must be given the 30-minute break, plus two 15-minute non-working breaks.

 

Under the federal FLSA, employees are entitled to payment for any break that is less than 20 minutes, so the 15-minute breaks must be paid.

 

Corporate employees or office employees who do not work on the sales floor are not included in the total number of employees. A company that had 49 sales clerks and one office manager would not be covered by the law. However, stores that have several locations must count all the employees in the state to determine if they have 50 retail employees.

 

The new break law is enforced by the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation or DLLR, with fines starting at $300 per employee.

 

There are two exceptions under the new Maryland break law: (more…)

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Maryland Minimum Wage Increase 2009

June 5th, 2009 Posted by Amelia

 On July 24, 2009 the Maryland minimum wage increases from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, along with the federal . That is an of 70 cents, and an of $2.10 in just over two years.

 

By statute, when the increases, the Maryland minimum wage does so, as well.

 

The other states on the same schedule are Nebraska, Kentucky, Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, and Utah.

 

State minimum wage laws vary widely and dramatically, which is one reason why employers should always have an updated poster displayed, as the law requires.

 

More than half of the states in the U.S. have rates that are above the federal minimum. The rest are either equal to or below the federal level. Some states have a cost of living increase and some do not.

 

Five states do not have minimum wages. They are Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Employers in those states who are not covered by federal minimum wage laws could legally pay their workers 10 cents an hour. Whether or not they would find anyone willing to work for that rate is another matter.

 

Among the states that have established minimum wage laws, the hourly rates vary by almost $6 an hour. At the high end of the chart is Washington State, with a minimum of $8.55 hourly. At the very bottom is Kansas, with a pay rate of $2.65 an hour. The difference between the two states is $5.90 an hour.

 

In second place is Oregon, at $8.40. The Vermont minimum wage is (more…)

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Maryland Flexible Leave Act

December 2nd, 2008 Posted by Madison

The Maryland Flexible Leave Act requires employers to allow employees to use “leave with pay” for an illness in the ’s immediate family.

 

Under this law, “leave with pay” includes vacation, PTO, , and personal leave. It also includes , or “comp time” for those agencies or employers that provide it. Employees can only use paid leave that has been earned. Employers are not required to grant leave that has been accrued but not earned, under this law.

 

The act defines immediate family as a child, spouse or parent.     .

 

The new Maryland law does not require that employers offer paid leave of any sort. However, when a Maryland employer does offer such leave, he  or she must permit  employees to use it when a family member is sick.

 

Under new FMLA or that go into effect on January 17, 2009 employers must permit workers to use (more…)

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Maryland Minimum Wage Goes to $6.55 in July

April 23rd, 2008 Posted by Amelia

The will to $6.55 per hour, along with the federal on July 24, 2008. Under the minimum wage statute, the state rate is replaced by the federal rate, if the is higher.

Currently the is $6.15 per hour and has been unchanged since February 16, 2006. The federal minimum wage is $5.85 per hour, a change that was effective in July 2007.

A recent change to the Maryland wage and hour regulations was prompted by a state court decision that in some cases, vacation can be considered “earned wages.” According to the of website, employees are entitled to payment for earned and unused vacation at termination, unless the employer specifically has a written policy in place that prohibits such payment.

The court’s ruling was not entirely clear, and it’s possible that in the near future, every Maryland employer will have to pay earned vacation time upon termination. A few employers are already doing so, as a precaution.

Under , a terminated must receive his or her final paycheck on the regular payday. This is true regardless of whether the quit or was fired.

Maryland has many exceptions to the state’s minimum wage laws. In Maryland, as in other states, employees are covered by the federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act if the employer generates more than $500,000 in revenue each year, or if the employee engages in interstate commerce.

Employees who work for smaller companies are covered under the law.

The Maryland minimum wage statute, as well as the FLSA, entitle most workers to an overtime premium when they work more than 40 hours in one week. Workers must be paid 1.5 times their usual hourly wage for overtime.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is a three-step process to increase the federal minimum wage over three years. The first increase occurred on July 24, 2007, raising the 2006 wage by 70 cents from $5.15 to $5.85 per hour. The second increase is scheduled for July 24, 2008, the third on July 24, 2009, for a total increase of $2.10 per hour.

This increase to the federal minimum wage is the first in over a decade. Full-time minimum wage workers will see a total increase of $84 per week, or $4,368 per year.

The increase has supporters and detractors. Supporters stress that the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour in 2006 purchased less, than the $1.60 per hour minimum wage in 1968. Amazingly, the federal minimum wage would have to go up to $9.12 per hour to match the 1960s purchasing powers.

Detractors of the increase are concerned that upping the federal minimum will diminish employment opportunities for entry level and for unskilled workers.

The federal minimum wage applies to companies with more than 50 workers, or with annual earnings greater than $500,000, or employers that conduct business interstate. Interstate business can include regular mailings to potential customers in another state, manufacturing goods for out-of-state sale, or purchasing supplies from out-of-state vendors.

The entire company doesn’t have to engage in interstate commerce for the employees to be eligible for the federal minimum wage. For instance, an administrative assistant who answers out-of-state calls could be eligible for a federal minimum wage salary.

In many states, the state-mandated minimum wage is greater than the federal minimum. If an employee qualifies for both state and federal minimum, that employee is entitled to whichever wage is greater.

The U. S. ’s Wage and Hour Division enforces the federal minimum wage law and wants to remind employers that paying a worker less than minimum is a violation of the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938). In addition, every worker is entitled to receive their paycheck on their regular payday.

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Maryland Workplace Violence

April 17th, 2008 Posted by Amelia

U.S. Labor Department statistics indicate that violence in the workplace has become less common. But, that data is belied by recent news reports.

employers must establish emergency anti-violence programs to train managers and workers how to respond to workplace violence, and how to help prevent it. Incidents of violence on the job in 2007, plus a number of recent events highlight just how vital it is for companies to implement these plans.

On October 5, 2007, in Alexandria, Louisiana, John Ashley, a retired city maintenance worker shot 5 persons in a law office downtown. When police responded to the scene, Ashley fought off several attempts by police to rescue the workers. After a 10 hour standoff, the police used explosives and entered the building. Ashley and the police exchanged gunfire, resulting in Ashley’s death. Three of the workers were injured, but alive. The other two died.

A more recent incident alarmed the entire nation, particularly those with loved ones on college campuses. On February 14, Steven Kazmierczak burst into a lecture hall on the DeKalb, Illinois campus of Northern Illinois University (NIU) and opened fire. Six people were killed and 16 were injured. Kazmierczak ended the spree by shooting himself.

Described as a calm, committed student by professors, former NIU graduate student Kazmierczak was very interested in studies of Criminal Justice. A current graduate student in social work at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Kazmierczak was reported by police to have been off his medications for three weeks and acting strangely. Jessica Baty, Kazmierczak’s girlfriend, argued that Steven was stressed from school, but not overly so, and that he’d bought the two guns for “home security.”

Labor Day weekend 2007 saw a tragic shooting at an Orlando Denny’s. There, a waitress was stabbed by her husband inside the restaurant on International Drive. Paramedics did their best to save her, but the woman died of her wounds. The stabbing was witnessed by several families who had just left Walt Disney World. Coworkers and customers chased the husband, who escaped over a fence, leaving behind one of his shoes.

Two more incidents occurred in February, involving a robbery gone bad in Tinley Park, Illinois where 6 women were shot (5 died) in a Lane Bryant store. The other involved the city officials in Kirkwood, Missouri. An armed political activist, who had twice been ejected from meetings, burst in and shot 6 members of the city council. The mayor survived, but two police officers and three city officials were killed.

Workplace violence is a continuing tragedy. Two recent episodes, in Missouri and Illinois, were only the latest. Several incidents took place during 2007, including the shocking incident at Virginia Tech.

In that episode on April 16, without a doubt the worst of 2007, a young man killed 32 students and staff members, wounded 17 others, and then took his own life as police moved in on him.

The young man, Seung-Hui Cho, displayed a number of what the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, calls warning signs of violence in the workplace. He had a history of mental health problems but was not seeking treatment for them. He exhibited fits of rage and an unhealthy interest in weapons. The youth also had a history of obsession-like crushes on women he barely knew, and engaged in behavior bordering on stalking with these casual acquaintances.

During a tragic event in September, two students, both 17 years old, were shot to death outside a dining hall on the campus of Delaware State University. The school was put on lockdown after the shooting near the school sports arena, and later a student was interviewed regarding the episode. The roughly 1,700 students on campus were confined to their dormitories. Many were informed by cell phone of the incident and the lockdown.

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