Human Resource Blog

Overtime and Benefits

i will like to know if an employer is required  to pay sick days, personal days, holidays, vacation and or overtime ?

As an employer, there is no law that you must offer benefits such as paid sick leave, personal days, paid holidays or vacations to employees. This is a matter of company policy — you can choose to offer them or not.

However, if you have a written policy that promises these benefits to employees, then in most cases you must honor that policy. In many states the department of labor will enforce such a written agreement. In other states, the employee can take you to small claims court and collect such benefits in accordance with a written agreement.

But to repeat, you can choose not to offer any of those benefits to employees, in every state at this time. (Congress is currently debating a bill that would require employers to offer paid sick leave to employees — but it has not passed, and may not pass this year. The District of Columbia and San Francisco require paid sick leave for employees — but other areas do not.)

Overtime is a different matter. The federal FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act applies to you if your business engages in interstate commerce (such as accepting credit cards or using the Internet at work.) It also applies to any employer with annual revenue of $500,000 or more. The FLSA requires you as an employee to pay overtime at 1.5 times the employees average rate when the employee works more than 40 hours in the week.

Several states also have overtime laws that apply to smaller employers.