Virginia State Overtime Labor Law Requirements

Virginia technically does not have an overtime labor law of its own. Should we just brush it aside and pay it no mind? Of course not! Like many other states that don’t have their own state overtime laws, Virginia still follows the federal guidelines for determining who gets overtime pay and what they get paid for overtime hours.

The federal law, generally speaking, says that employers must pay their employees time and a half their normal pay rate whenever the employees work more than 40 hours in a week. This regulation comes from the federal law, the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA for short, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor in the Labor, Wage, and Hour Division.

That means in Virginia, if an employer has a question about paying overtime, or if an employee is wondering about overtime pay, they need to contact the federal authorities to get the definitive answer. The closest federal office in Virginia isn’t all the way up in Washington, D.C., though. It is in the state capital of Richmond in a district office of the Department of Labor.

That office can be contacted directly with any overtime concerns. Or the main Department of Labor office can also be contacted by phone.

Some issues, however, we can cover here where we still have room in my blog. For instance, under the federal law, an employer does not have to necessarily pay time and a half to employees who work on weekends or during holidays. That pay rate is up to the employer to decide. What matters most is how many hours an employee worked in a week, and whether or not that amount is over 40.

It is also important to know that all businesses in Virginia don’t have to hold themselves to the FLSA standards. Interstate businesses and/or those that make more than $500,000 in revenue per year must follow the rules, as do hospitals, schools, and government entities.