Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) paystub meaning: The federal wage law behind the $7.25 minimum, the 1.5x overtime rule past 40 hours, and the exempt or...

The federal wage law behind the $7.25 minimum, the 1.5x overtime rule past 40 hours, and the exempt or non-exempt label on your stub.

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the floor under your paycheck. Three of its rules are visible on a stub. First, a wage floor. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour effective July 24, 2009. For tipped workers an employer must pay at least $2.13 an hour in cash and may claim a tip credit of up to $5.12, and if tips do not close the gap to $7.25 the employer must make up the difference. Workers under 20 may be paid a youth minimum wage of at least $4.25 an hour for their first 90 consecutive calendar days with an employer. Second, overtime. Non-exempt employees must receive at least one and a half times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek. The regular rate is not your base rate: it is total compensation for the workweek divided by hours worked, which pulls in shift differentials and nondiscretionary bonuses. Third, the exempt label. To be exempt under the executive, administrative or professional tests you generally must be paid on a salary basis of at least $684 a week — about $35,568 a year — and actually perform exempt duties. A 2024 rule raising that figure was vacated by a federal court on November 15, 2024, and in May 2026 the Department of Labor published a technical amendment restoring the 2019 regulations: $684 a week, and $107,432 in total annual compensation for the highly compensated employee test. The FLSA also requires employers to keep 14 categories of payroll records — daily and weekly hours, the regular hourly rate, every addition to or deduction from wages — and to preserve payroll records for at least three years.

Payroll and labor-law terms can vary by jurisdiction and by the facts of a particular job. This definition is an orientation, not legal advice; current federal, state, local, union, and employer rules may all matter.

When this term appears on a statement, read its label, current amount, year-to-date amount, pay-period context, and any adjacent rate or hours together. Resolve a mismatch with the original issuer or the cited authority rather than changing a record to force a preferred result.