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A recent opinion letter issued by the Oklahoma Attorney General allows employers to require wage payment by direct deposit but not by payroll debit card.

This opinion letter overturns a former ruling, that Oklahoma employers could not require payment by direct deposit.

An Oklahoma employer may require that an employee accept payment of wages by direct deposit, under this new ruling. However, the employer cannot require that the employee use a certain bank for wage payment. The employee must be free to use a bank of his or her choice for payroll deposits.

If an Oklahoma employer had a policy allowing employees to receive (more…)

Like several other states in the U. S., Oklahoma ties its minimum wage to the federal minimum. Therefore, when the federal minimum wage increases from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009, Oklahoma’ s minimum wage will increase, too.

According to state law, the Oklahoma minimum wage increases when the federal minimum wage does. The Oklahoma statute doesn’t even contain a dollar amount, merely that the state adopts the federal minimum.

The Oklahoma minimum wage applies to companies with 10 or more employees at a single location.

In addition, according to the Oklahoma Department of Labor, the Oklahoma minimum wage applies to all employers with annual earnings over $100,000, regardless of the number of workers employed.

There are exceptions to the Oklahoma minimum wage law. For instance, employees in domestic service in private homes and volunteers in charitable and non-profit organizations are exempt. Others exempt from minimum wage include students under the age of 22, agricultural workers, newspaper carriers or vendors and feed store employees.

As with the federal minimum wage laws, salaried managers, most executives, outside salespeople and professional employees are exempt from Oklahoma state minimum law. For part-time employees, the exception applies only to those who work fewer than 25 hours per week.

In a little known exception to the Oklahoma state minimum wage law, employers with earnings less than $100,000 and fewer than 10 workers are legally permitted to pay employees as little as $2.00 per hour. Every worker over 18 years of age, however, must be paid at least $2.00 per hour.

Also excluded from the state minimum wage law are all employers who are covered by FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), which is the main federal minimum wage law. Under FLSA, employers earning at least $500,000 per year, or engage in interstate commerce fall under the federal minimum wage laws.

Overtime pay isn’t addressed by any Oklahoma state law. Instead, employees are covered under FLSA. This federal law mandates employees be paid 1.5 times the usual hourly rate when they work over 40 hours in one workweek.

Employers have already been warned that the state minimum wage will increase with the new year in Oregon, Washington, Florida, New Mexico, Vermont, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Connecticut.

However, employers in other states also have to contend with minimum wage increases this year.

Even if an employer has no minimum wage employees, each increase means the employer must update his or her minimum wage posters. By law, employers are required to display a variety of labor law posters prominently in the workplace. Failure to do so can result in fines, penalties and citations.

On July 1, 2009 the Illinois minimum wage will increase by 50 cents, from $7.50 to $8.00 per hour. This is the final step in a 3-tiered increase introduced by the now-infamous (more…)

 On July 24, 2008, when the federal minimum wage increased to $6.55 per hour, the Oklahoma state minimum wage increased, too. The state law for the Oklahoma minimum wage doesn’t even contain a dollar amount, but merely requires the state to match the federal minimum wage.

The increase in the federal minimum wage was the second in a series of three 70-cent increased mandated by the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The next increase in the federal minimum wage will occur on July 24, 2009, so the Oklahoma state minimum wage will increase on that date, as well.

The state minimum wage, according to the Oklahoma Department of Labor, (more…)

On July 24, 2008 when the federal minimum wage increase to $6.55 per hour, the Oklahoma state minimum wage will, as well. This is the second in a series of 3 70-cent increases in the federal minimum wage introduced by the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The federal minimum wage will increase from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour.

By state statute, the Oklahoma minimum wage increases when the federal minimum wage does. In fact, according to the US Department of Labor, the Oklahoma state minimum wage statute doesn’t even contain a dollar amount. It simply adopts the federal minimum wage rate by reference.

The state minimum wage excludes (more…)