{ "type": "practice-guide", "canonical": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia", "links": [ { "rel": "self", "href": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia.json", "type": "application/json" }, { "rel": "alternate", "href": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia", "type": "text/html" }, { "rel": "alternate", "href": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia/markdown", "type": "text/markdown" }, { "rel": "alternate", "href": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia/json", "type": "application/json" } ], "data": { "topic": "wage-and-hour", "state": "georgia", "frontmatter": { "title": "Wage and Hour Law in Georgia", "description": "A practice note explaining how Georgia's wage and hour rules actually work in practice, covering the state minimum wage that sits below the federal floor and steps aside where a higher federal wage applies, the absence of any state daily overtime or general break mandate, payment method and semimonthly payday rules, final pay on separation, worker classification, the exclusion of tipped workers from the state minimum wage chapter, and the private civil action and enforcement powers available under state and federal law.", "state": "Georgia", "lastReviewed": "2026-08-16", "license": "CC BY 4.0", "authors": [ "steven-obiajulu" ], "summary": { "minimumWageFloor": "residualBelowFederal", "bottomLine": "Most Georgia workers are owed the federal minimum wage and federal overtime, because Georgia's own minimum wage statute sets a lower figure and steps aside wherever a higher federal minimum wage applies.", "keyLaw": "O.C.G.A. §§ 34-4-1 through 34-4-6; O.C.G.A. §§ 34-7-1 through 34-7-6; Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 203, 206, 207, 216", "dailyOvertime": "weeklyOnly", "mealRestBreaks": "none", "finalPayTiming": "nextPayday", "latePayPenalty": "none", "payFrequency": "semiMonthly", "wageStatement": "none", "workerClassificationTest": "economicRealities", "tipCredit": "noTipCredit", "currentAsOf": "2026-08-16" }, "about": [ "Georgia minimum wage and the federal floor", "Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act", "Meal and rest breaks", "Final pay and pay frequency", "Worker classification", "Tipped employees", "Wage claim enforcement and remedies" ] }, "questions": [ { "slug": "minimum-wage", "label": "What is the state minimum wage, and how does it relate to the federal floor?", "heading": "What is the minimum wage?", "answerText": "A Georgia worker covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act is owed the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour rather than a Georgia figure, because the Georgia Minimum Wage Law does not apply to an employer subject to a federal minimum wage act as to employees covered by that act where the federal act provides a greater minimum wage. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires every covered employer to pay the federal minimum wage to employees engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce. Enterprise coverage reaches an enterprise whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $500,000. Georgia's own statute — the Georgia Minimum Wage Law — sets a minimum of $5.15 per hour. That figure sits below the federal rate, and it is not the wage a covered worker is owed. The Georgia chapter itself says so: it does not apply to any employer subject to a federal minimum wage act as to employees covered by that act, where the federal act provides a greater minimum wage. A worker who reads the $5.15 figure in isolation and concludes that is the lawful rate has been misled by a provision that, by its own terms, yields to the higher federal floor. The reach of the $5.15 figure is narrower still. The Georgia chapter does not apply at all to a long list of employers and employees, including any employer with sales of $40,000.00 per year or less, any employer with five employees or less, any employer of domestic employees, any farm owner, sharecropper, or land renter, any employee whose compensation consists wholly or partially of gratuities, any high school or college student, any newspaper carrier, and certain resident employees of nonprofit child-caring institutions. Between the exclusion list and the deference to a higher federal wage, the $5.15 rate operates only in the residual space that federal coverage does not reach. A separate federal rule allows an employer to pay a wage of not less than $4.25 an hour during the first 90 consecutive calendar days after an employee is initially employed. Since 2022, state law has barred a local government entity from adopting, maintaining, or enforcing a wage or employment benefit mandate, and that term is defined to cover any local requirement that an employer pay a wage rate or provide employment benefits not otherwise required under the Code or federal law. No Georgia city or county sets its own minimum wage.", "sources": [ { "id": "ocga-34-4-1", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-1", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-1", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3VX-00008-00", "proposition": "Chapter 4 of Title 34 of the Georgia Code is titled the Georgia Minimum Wage Law.", "verbatimQuote": "This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Georgia Minimum Wage Law.”", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-4-1" }, { "id": "ocga-34-4-3a", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-3(a)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3(a)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W0-00008-00", "proposition": "Georgia's state minimum wage statute requires covered employers to pay covered employees not less than $5.15 per hour worked, except as otherwise provided in that Code section.", "verbatimQuote": "Except as otherwise provided in this Code section, every employer, whether a person, firm, or corporation, shall pay to all covered employees a minimum wage which shall be not less than $5.15 per hour for each hour worked in the employment of such employer.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-4-3a" }, { "id": "ocga-34-4-3c", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-3(c)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3(c)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W0-00008-00", "proposition": "The Georgia Minimum Wage Law does not apply to an employer subject to a federal minimum wage act, as to employees covered by that act, where the federal act sets a higher minimum wage.", "verbatimQuote": "This chapter shall not apply to any employer who is subject to the minimum wage provisions of any act of Congress as to employees covered thereby if such act of Congress provides for a minimum wage which is greater than the minimum wage which is provided for in this Code section.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-4-3c" }, { "id": "ocga-34-4-3b", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-3(b)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3(b)(1)–(8)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W0-00008-00", "proposition": "The Georgia Minimum Wage Law does not apply to eight enumerated categories of employers and employees, including small employers, employers of domestic employees, farm owners, tipped employees, students, and newspaper carriers.", "verbatimQuote": "This chapter shall not apply with respect to: (1) Any employer that has sales of $40,000.00 per year or less; (2) Any employer having five employees or less; (3) Any employer of domestic employees; (4) Any employer who is a farm owner, sharecropper, or land renter; (5) Any employee whose compensation consists wholly or partially of gratuities; (6) Any employee who is a high school or college student; (7) Any individual who is employed as a newspaper carrier; or (8) Any individual who is employed by a nonprofit child-caring institution or long-term care facility serving children or mentally disabled adults who are enrolled in such institution and reside in residential facilities of the institution, if such employee resides in such facilities, receives without cost board and lodging from such institution, and is compensated on a cash basis at an annual rate of not less than $10,000.00.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-4-3b" }, { "id": "flsa-206-a", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 206(a)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 206(a)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section206&edition=prelim", "proposition": "The Fair Labor Standards Act requires every employer to pay the specified minimum wage rates to employees engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or employed in an enterprise so engaged.", "verbatimQuote": "Every employer shall pay to each of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, wages at the following rates: (1) except as otherwise provided in this section, not less than- (A) $5.85 an hour, beginning on the 60th day after May 25, 2007; (B) $6.55 an hour, beginning 12 months after that 60th day; and (C) $7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day; (2) if such employee is a home worker in Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, not less than the minimum piece rate prescribed by regulation or order; or, if no such minimum piece rate is in effect, any piece rate adopted by such employer which shall yield, to the proportion or class of employees prescribed by regulation or order, not less than the applicable minimum hourly wage rate.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-flsa-206-a" }, { "id": "flsa-enterprise-coverage", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(s)(1)(A)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(s)(1)(A)(i)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "Federal enterprise coverage reaches an enterprise with employees handling goods or materials moved in or produced for commerce whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $500,000.", "verbatimQuote": "(s)(1) “Enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce” means an enterprise that- (A)(i) has employees engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or that has employees handling, selling, or otherwise working on goods or materials that have been moved in or produced for commerce by any person; and (ii) is an enterprise whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $500,000 (exclusive of excise taxes at the retail level that are separately stated); (B) is engaged in the operation of a hospital, an institution primarily engaged in the care of the sick, the aged, or the mentally ill or defective who reside on the premises of such institution, a school for mentally or physically handicapped or gifted children, a preschool, elementary or secondary school, or an institution of higher education (regardless of whether or not such hospital, institution, or school is public or private or operated for profit or not for profit); or (C) is an activity of a public agency.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-flsa-enterprise-coverage" }, { "id": "flsa-youth-wage", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 206(g)(1)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 206(g)(1)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section206&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A federal employer may pay a wage of not less than $4.25 an hour during the first 90 consecutive calendar days after an employee is initially employed.", "verbatimQuote": "In lieu of the rate prescribed by subsection (a)(1), any employer may pay any employee of such employer, during the first 90 consecutive calendar days after such employee is initially employed by such employer, a wage which is not less than $4.25 an hour.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-flsa-youth-wage" }, { "id": "sb331-preemption", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2022, Act 823, § 2 (S.B. 331)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2022, Act 823, § 2 (S.B. 331)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2022-signed-legislation/sb-331/download", "proposition": "A local government entity in Georgia may not adopt, maintain, or enforce a wage or employment benefit mandate by any charter, ordinance, contract, regulation, rule, or resolution.", "verbatimQuote": "No local government entity may adopt, maintain, or enforce by charter, ordinance, purchase agreement, contract, regulation, rule, or resolution, either directly or indirectly, a wage or employment benefit mandate.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-sb331-preemption" }, { "id": "sb331-definition", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2022, Act 823, § 2 (S.B. 331)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2022, Act 823, § 2 (S.B. 331)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2022-signed-legislation/sb-331/download", "proposition": "A wage or employment benefit mandate is defined as any local government requirement that an employer pay a wage rate or provide employment benefits not otherwise required under the Georgia Code or federal law.", "verbatimQuote": "'Wage or employment benefit mandate' means any requirement adopted by a local government entity which requires an employer to pay any or all of its employees a wage rate or provide employment benefits not otherwise required under this Code or federal law.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-sb331-definition" } ] }, { "slug": "overtime", "label": "Does the state require daily overtime beyond the federal 40-hour weekly rule?", "heading": "When is overtime owed?", "answerText": "Georgia has no state overtime statute. The cited Georgia sections impose no daily overtime obligation, no double-time obligation, and no state weekly overtime obligation of their own. The overtime obligation that reaches Georgia workplaces is the federal one, imposed by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under that federal rule, a covered employee who works more than forty hours in a workweek must receive compensation for the excess hours at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which the employee is employed. The measuring period is the workweek, not the workday — nothing in the cited law requires a premium simply because a shift ran long, so long as the weekly total stays at or below forty hours. Sums properly excluded from the regular rate cannot then be credited toward the wages required under the federal minimum wage section or the overtime compensation required under the overtime section, so an employer cannot carve an item out of the rate and also count it as payment of the overtime owed. The Fair Labor Standards Act imposes the overtime requirement on covered employers by its own terms, so the exclusions written into the Georgia Minimum Wage Law operate on that state chapter rather than on the federal overtime duty. An employer excluded from the Georgia chapter still owes federal overtime to employees the Fair Labor Standards Act covers.", "sources": [ { "id": "flsa-207-a", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 207(a)(1)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section207&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A covered employer must pay a covered employee not less than one and one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a workweek.", "verbatimQuote": "Except as otherwise provided in this section, no employer shall employ any of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-flsa-207-a" }, { "id": "flsa-no-credit", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 207(h)(1)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 207(h)(1)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section207&edition=prelim", "proposition": "Sums excluded from the regular rate are not creditable toward the minimum wages required by section 206 or the overtime compensation required by section 207.", "verbatimQuote": "Except as provided in paragraph (2), sums excluded from the regular rate pursuant to subsection (e) shall not be creditable toward wages required under section 206 of this title or overtime compensation required under this section.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-flsa-no-credit" } ] }, { "slug": "meal-rest-breaks", "label": "Are meal and rest breaks mandated, and are they paid?", "heading": "Are breaks required?", "answerText": "No general meal or rest break mandate exists for adult employees in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Labor states plainly that neither the Fair Labor Standards Act nor Georgia law requires breaks or meal periods be given to workers. Ordinary meal and rest breaks in Georgia are a matter of employer policy or contract rather than statute. One statutory break requirement runs the other way, and it is set out at the end of this answer: Georgia law requires an employer to provide break time to an employee expressing breast milk, and that break time is paid at the employee's regular rate of compensation. What federal law does regulate is how a break that is given must be treated on the payroll. Short rest periods running from about 5 to 20 minutes must be counted as hours worked, and their compensable time may not be offset against other working time such as compensable waiting time or on-call time. A bona fide meal period is different: it is not worktime, coffee breaks and snack time do not qualify, and ordinarily 30 minutes or more is long enough. The line between the two turns on relief from duty. The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals, and an employee who is required to perform any duties while eating — whether active or inactive — is not relieved, as with an office employee required to eat at a desk or a factory worker required to be at a machine. Being kept on the premises does not by itself defeat an unpaid meal period, so long as the employee is otherwise completely freed from duties. The Georgia Department of Labor describes the same result: short breaks are paid, while a meal period of thirty minutes or more need not be compensated as long as workers are free to use the time as they wish and are not required to work. Georgia has one narrow, positive break entitlement, enacted in 2020 and in force, for employees expressing breast milk. Break time provided under that section is paid at the employee's regular rate of compensation, and a salaried employee may not be required to use paid leave for it or have salary reduced for taking it. The employer must provide a private location other than a restroom at the worksite. Two limits sit alongside the entitlement: an employer with fewer than 50 employees is not subject to a requirement that would impose an undue hardship measured against the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the business, and no employer must provide paid break time on a day the employee is working away from the employer's worksites. This provision does not create a general meal or rest break right.", "sources": [ { "id": "gdol-breaks", "authorityType": "agency-guidance", "tier": "official-source-backed", "title": "Georgia Department of Labor, Breaks and Meals", "citation": "Georgia Department of Labor, Breaks and Meals", "url": "https://dol.georgia.gov/breaks-and-meals", "proposition": "Neither federal nor Georgia law requires an employer to provide breaks or meal periods to workers.", "verbatimQuote": "Neither the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nor Georgia law require breaks or meal periods be given to workers.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-gdol-breaks" }, { "id": "gdol-breaks-paid", "authorityType": "agency-guidance", "tier": "official-source-backed", "title": "Georgia Department of Labor, Breaks and Meals", "citation": "Georgia Department of Labor, Breaks and Meals", "url": "https://dol.georgia.gov/breaks-and-meals", "proposition": "Federal law requires payment for short break periods but does not require compensation for meal periods of thirty minutes or more where workers are free to use the time as they wish and perform no work.", "verbatimQuote": "The FLSA requires workers be paid for short break periods; however an employer does not have to compensate for meal periods of thirty minutes or more, as long as the workers are free to use the meal period time as they wish and are not required to perform work during that time.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-gdol-breaks-paid" }, { "id": "cfr-785-18", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 785.18", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 785.18", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-785.18", "proposition": "Rest periods of 5 to about 20 minutes must be counted as hours worked, and their compensable time may not be offset against other working time.", "verbatimQuote": "Rest periods of short duration, running from 5 minutes to about 20 minutes, are common in industry. They promote the efficiency of the employee and are customarily paid for as working time. They must be counted as hours worked. Compensable time of rest periods may not be offset against other working time such as compensable waiting time or on-call time.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-cfr-785-18" }, { "id": "cfr-785-19-meal", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 785.19", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 785.19(a)", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-785.19", "proposition": "Bona fide meal periods are not worktime and do not include coffee breaks or snack time, which are rest periods.", "verbatimQuote": "Bona fide meal periods are not worktime. Bona fide meal periods do not include coffee breaks or time for snacks. These are rest periods.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-cfr-785-19-meal" }, { "id": "cfr-785-19a", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 785.19(a)", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 785.19(a)", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-785.19", "proposition": "An employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purpose of eating regular meals for the period to qualify as a bona fide meal period.", "verbatimQuote": "The employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-cfr-785-19a" }, { "id": "cfr-785-19-duties", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 785.19", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 785.19(a)", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-785.19", "proposition": "An employee required to perform any duties, active or inactive, while eating is not relieved from duty and is working while eating.", "verbatimQuote": "The employee is not relieved if he is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. For example, an office employee who is required to eat at his desk or a factory worker who is required to be at his machine is working while eating.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-cfr-785-19-duties" }, { "id": "cfr-785-19b", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 785.19(b)", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 785.19(b)", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-785.19", "proposition": "An employee need not be permitted to leave the premises for a meal period to qualify, provided the employee is otherwise completely freed from duties.", "verbatimQuote": "It is not necessary that an employee be permitted to leave the premises if he is otherwise completely freed from duties during the meal period.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-cfr-785-19b" }, { "id": "hb1090-paid", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2020-signed-legislation/hb-1090/download", "proposition": "Break time to express breast milk must be paid at the employee's regular rate, and a salaried employee may not be required to use paid leave for it or have salary reduced for taking it.", "verbatimQuote": "Any break time provided for under this Code section shall be paid at the employee's regular rate of compensation. If the employee is paid on a salary basis, the employer shall neither require the salaried employee to use paid leave during any break time nor reduce the employee's salary as a result of the salaried employee taking a break to express breast milk during the workday.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-hb1090-paid" }, { "id": "hb1090-location", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2020-signed-legislation/hb-1090/download", "proposition": "An employer must provide a private location other than a restroom at the worksite where an employee can express breast milk in privacy.", "verbatimQuote": "The employer shall provide a private location, other than a restroom, where such employee can express breast milk in privacy at the worksite.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-hb1090-location" }, { "id": "hb1090-undue-hardship", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2020-signed-legislation/hb-1090/download", "proposition": "An employer with fewer than 50 employees is not subject to a requirement of the breast milk expression section that would impose an undue hardship given the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the business.", "verbatimQuote": "An employer that employs fewer than 50 employees shall not be subject to any requirement of this Code section that would impose an undue hardship by causing the employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer's business.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-hb1090-undue-hardship" }, { "id": "hb1090-offsite", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2020, Act 595, § 1-1 (H.B. 1090)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2020-signed-legislation/hb-1090/download", "proposition": "No employer is required to provide paid break time on a day the employee is working away from any of the employer's worksites.", "verbatimQuote": "No employer shall be required to provide paid break time to an employee on any day that the employee is working away from any of the employer's worksites.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-hb1090-offsite" } ] }, { "slug": "final-pay", "label": "When must final wages be paid on separation, and what is the penalty for paying late?", "heading": "When is final pay due?", "answerText": "No Georgia statute among the cited sections sets a deadline for paying a departing worker's final wages. What the cited sections do fix is the ordinary payday machinery: wage payments must fall on dates that divide the month into at least two equal periods, and the payment made on each date must correspond to the full net amount of wages or earnings due for the period covered. In practical terms, the operative date is the regular payday for the period worked, since the payment made on each selected date must correspond to the full net amount of wages or earnings due for the period it covers. Employment itself can end without notice on either side: an indefinite hiring may be terminated at will by either party. The money consequence the cited Georgia sections do attach is a $10.00 liability for failing to redeem a written evidence of indebtedness issued for wages on demand and presentation, which is neither a waiting-time penalty nor a multiplier keyed to a final check that arrives slowly. The remedy the state chapter provides runs to underpayment — paying less than the state minimum wage — and not to lateness. The one late-payment consequence in the cited law is narrow and attaches to unhonored wage instruments rather than to delay in issuing the final check. That narrow rule is worth knowing. A business that issues checks or written evidences of indebtedness for the wages of laborers must redeem them at full value, in cash, on demand and presentation on the regular monthly payday, or, where there is no regular monthly payday, on any regular business day after 30 days from issuance. For every failure to redeem, the issuer is liable to the owner of the instrument in the sum of $10.00, recoverable by suit, unless the issuer proves insolvency or actual inability to redeem at the time of demand and presentation. Related requirements govern the instrument itself. A check, draft, note, or other instrument issued in payment of wages must be negotiable and payable in cash, on demand, without discount, at an established place of business in the United States whose name and address appear on the instrument, and the maker or drawer must have sufficient funds, credit, or an arrangement with the drawee at issuance and for at least 30 days thereafter. If the instrument is protested or dishonored, the notice or memorandum of protest is admissible as proof of presentation, nonpayment, and protest, and is presumptive evidence of knowledge of insufficient funds. Wages owed to a worker who dies are handled separately. Where a deceased employee had wages or other moneys due, the employer may lawfully pay all such sums if they do not exceed $2,500.00, or pay $2,500.00 if the sums exceed that amount, in the manner the statute prescribes.", "sources": [ { "id": "ocga-34-7-2b-dates", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-2(b)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2(b)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XK-00008-00", "proposition": "An employer selects its own pay dates, but those dates must divide the month into at least two equal periods and each payment must correspond to the full net wages due for the period covered.", "verbatimQuote": "Such payments shall be made on such dates during the month as may be decided upon by such person, firm, or corporation; provided, however, that the dates so selected shall be such that the month will be divided into at least two equal periods; and provided, further, that the payments made on each such date shall in every case correspond to the full net amount of wages or earnings due the employees for the period for which the payment is made.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-2b-dates" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-1-atwill", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-1", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-1", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XJ-00008-00", "proposition": "An indefinite hiring in Georgia may be terminated at will by either the employer or the employee.", "verbatimQuote": "An indefinite hiring may be terminated at will by either party.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-1-atwill" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-5-redeem", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-5", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-5", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XP-00008-00", "proposition": "A business issuing checks or written evidences of indebtedness for laborers' wages must redeem them at full value in cash on demand and presentation on the regular monthly payday, or on any regular business day after 30 days from issuance if there is no regular monthly payday.", "verbatimQuote": "Any corporation or person doing business of any kind in this state who shall issue checks or written evidences of indebtedness for the wages of laborers shall redeem at full value, in cash, such written evidences of indebtedness on demand and presentation to the proper person on the regular monthly payday; and, if there shall be no regular monthly payday, then such written evidences shall be redeemed upon demand and presentation on any regular business day after 30 days from the issuance thereof.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-5-redeem" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-5-penalty", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-5", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-5", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XP-00008-00", "proposition": "An issuer that fails to redeem a wage instrument is liable to the owner for $10.00, recoverable by suit, unless it proves insolvency or actual inability to redeem at the time of demand and presentation.", "verbatimQuote": "For every failure to redeem such evidences of indebtedness, such corporation or person shall be liable to the owner thereof in the sum of $10.00, to be recovered by suit, unless the corporation or person shall, upon the trial, prove insolvency or actual inability to redeem at the time of demand and presentation.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-5-penalty" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-3a-negotiable", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-3(a)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-3(a)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XM-00008-00", "proposition": "An instrument issued in payment of wages must be negotiable and payable in cash on demand without discount at an established place of business in the United States whose name and address appear on the instrument.", "verbatimQuote": "Any order, check, draft, note, or other instrument issued in payment of wages or salary due or to become due must be negotiable and payable in cash, on demand, without discount, at some established place of business in the United States, the name and address of which must appear on the instrument.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-3a-negotiable" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-3a-funds", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-3(a)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-3(a)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XM-00008-00", "proposition": "At issuance and for at least 30 days thereafter, the maker or drawer of a wage instrument must have sufficient funds, credit, or an arrangement with the drawee for its payment.", "verbatimQuote": "At the time of issuance of such instrument and for a reasonable time thereafter (which must be at least 30 days), the maker or drawer must have sufficient funds or credit or an arrangement or understanding with the drawee as to its payment.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-3a-funds" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-3b-protest", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-3(b)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-3(b)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XM-00008-00", "proposition": "A notice or memorandum of protest or dishonor of a wage instrument is admissible as proof of presentation, nonpayment, and protest and is presumptive evidence of knowledge of insufficient funds.", "verbatimQuote": "Where an instrument described in this Code section is protested or dishonored, the notice or memorandum of protest or dishonor is admissible as proof of presentation, nonpayment, and protest and is presumptive evidence of knowledge of insufficiency of funds or credit with the drawee.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-3b-protest" }, { "id": "ocga-34-7-4-death", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-4", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-4", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XN-00008-00", "proposition": "Where an employee dies with wages or other moneys due, the employer may lawfully pay all such sums if they do not exceed $2,500.00, or pay $2,500.00 if the sums exceed that amount.", "verbatimQuote": "Upon the death of any person who was employed by any political subdivision of the state or by any railroad company or other corporation, individual, or partnership doing business in this state, if the deceased employee had wages or other moneys due from such employer, it shall be lawful for such employer to pay all of such sums if they do not exceed $2,500.00, or to pay the sum of $2,500.00 if such sums exceed $2,500.00 or upon the death of any person who was employed by the state, if the deceased employee had wages or other moneys due from the state, it shall be lawful for the state to pay all of such sums, as follows:", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-7-4-death" }, { "id": "ocga-34-4-6-action", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-6", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-6", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W4-00008-00", "proposition": "An employee paid less than the state minimum wage may sue in superior court within three years for the difference plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, together with costs and reasonable attorney's fees.", "verbatimQuote": "If any employer pays any employee a lesser amount than the minimum wage provided in this chapter, the employee, at any time within three years, may bring a civil action in superior court for the recovery of the difference between the amount paid and the minimum wage provided in this chapter, plus an additional amount equal to the original claim, which shall be allowed as liquidated damages, together with costs and such reasonable attorney's fees as may be allowed by the court.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-ocga-34-4-6-action" } ] }, { "slug": "pay-frequency", "label": "How often must workers be paid, and what must a pay stub show?", "heading": "How often must workers be paid?", "answerText": "Georgia requires at least semimonthly pay for the workers its payday statute covers. The employer picks the dates, but they must divide the month into at least two equal periods, and each payment must correspond to the full net amount of wages or earnings due for the period covered. The coverage of that rule is specific rather than universal. It reaches persons, firms, and corporations, including steam and electric railroads but not farming, sawmill, and turpentine industries, that employ skilled or unskilled wageworkers in manual, mechanical, or clerical labor, and it excludes officials, superintendents, and other heads or subheads of departments employed by the month or year at stipulated salaries. The same provision fixes the permitted forms of payment: lawful money of the United States, check, credit to a payroll card account, or — with the consent of the employee — authorization of electronic credit transfer to the employee's account at a bank, trust company, or other financial institution. Electronic transfer is the one method the statute conditions on employee consent. A payroll card account is defined as an account established through the employer to which electronic fund transfers of wages are made on a recurring basis, whether operated by the employer, a third-party payroll processor, a depository institution, or another person. On pay stubs, Georgia requires nothing. The record the state minimum wage chapter requires runs to the Commissioner of Labor: an employer must maintain records of hours worked and wages paid, and furnish the Commissioner, on demand, a sworn statement of hours worked and wages paid. One written disclosure does run to employees, and it concerns payroll cards rather than pay itself. An employer electing to pay by credit to a payroll card account must give the employee a written explanation of any fees associated with the account, with timing set by the statute: at least 30 days before the account becomes available for employees already employed on the election date, and at the time of hiring for anyone hired afterward. Local governments cannot add scheduling rules. Since 2022, a local government entity may not adopt, maintain, or enforce the hours or scheduling an employer must provide employees, or otherwise regulate employee output during work hours.", "sources": [ { "id": "pf-34-7-2b-dates", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-2(b)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2(b)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XK-00008-00", "proposition": "Pay dates selected by a covered employer must divide the month into at least two equal periods, and each payment must correspond to the full net wages due for the period covered.", "verbatimQuote": "Such payments shall be made on such dates during the month as may be decided upon by such person, firm, or corporation; provided, however, that the dates so selected shall be such that the month will be divided into at least two equal periods; and provided, further, that the payments made on each such date shall in every case correspond to the full net amount of wages or earnings due the employees for the period for which the payment is made.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-34-7-2b-dates" }, { "id": "pf-34-7-2b-coverage", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-2(b)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2(b)(1)–(4)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XK-00008-00", "proposition": "The Georgia payday statute covers employers of skilled or unskilled wageworkers in manual, mechanical, or clerical labor, excluding farming, sawmill, and turpentine industries and salaried department heads, and permits payment by lawful money, check, payroll card account, or electronic credit transfer with the employee's consent.", "verbatimQuote": "Every person, firm, or corporation, including steam and electric railroads, but not including farming, sawmill, and turpentine industries, employing skilled or unskilled wageworkers in manual, mechanical, or clerical labor, including all employees except officials, superintendents, or other heads or subheads of departments who may be employed by the month or year at stipulated salaries, shall, upon the discretion of such person, firm, or corporation, make wage and salary payments to such employees or to their authorized representatives: (1) By lawful money of the United States; (2) By check; (3) By credit to a payroll card account; or (4) With the consent of the employee, by authorization of electronic credit transfer to his or her account with a bank, trust company, or other financial institution authorized by the United States or one of the several states to receive deposits in the United States.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-34-7-2b-coverage" }, { "id": "pf-payroll-card-def", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-2(a)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2(a)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XK-00008-00", "proposition": "A payroll card account is an account established through an employer to which electronic fund transfers of employee wages are made on a recurring basis, however it is operated or managed.", "verbatimQuote": "As used in this Code section, the term “payroll card account” means an account that is directly or indirectly established through a person, firm, or corporation employing wageworkers or other employees and to which electronic fund transfers of the wages or salary of such employees are made on a recurring basis, whether the account is operated or managed by such person, firm, or corporation or a third-party payroll processor, a depository institution, or any other person.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-payroll-card-def" }, { "id": "pf-34-4-5-records", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-5", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-5", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W3-00008-00", "proposition": "An employer subject to the Georgia Minimum Wage Law must maintain records of hours worked and wages paid for each employee and furnish the Commissioner on demand a sworn statement of those hours and wages.", "verbatimQuote": "Every employer subject to this chapter or any regulation pursuant thereto shall maintain records showing the hours worked by each employee and the wages paid to him and shall furnish to the Commissioner upon demand a sworn statement of the hours worked and wages paid to each person in his or its employment covered by this chapter.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-34-4-5-records" }, { "id": "pf-payroll-card-fees", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-2(c)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2(c)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XK-00008-00", "proposition": "An employer electing to pay wages by credit to a payroll card account must provide the employee a written explanation of any fees associated with the account, at least 30 days before availability for existing employees and at hiring for later hires.", "verbatimQuote": "A person, firm, or corporation that elects pursuant to subsection (b) of this Code section to make wage and salary payments by using credit to a payroll card account shall provide the employee with a written explanation of any fees associated with the payroll card account offered to the employee. For all employees employed on the date a person, firm, or corporation elects to make such wage and salary payments by using credit to a payroll card account, such written explanation shall be provided at least 30 days prior to the date such payroll card account is to become available. For any employee hired after the date of such election, the written explanation shall be provided at the time of hiring.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-payroll-card-fees" }, { "id": "pf-payroll-card-timing", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-2(c)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2(c)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XK-00008-00", "proposition": "The payroll card fee explanation is due at least 30 days before the account becomes available for employees employed on the election date, and at the time of hiring for employees hired after that date.", "verbatimQuote": "For all employees employed on the date a person, firm, or corporation elects to make such wage and salary payments by using credit to a payroll card account, such written explanation shall be provided at least 30 days prior to the date such payroll card account is to become available. For any employee hired after the date of such election, the written explanation shall be provided at the time of hiring.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-payroll-card-timing" }, { "id": "pf-sb331-scheduling", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "Ga. L. 2022, Act 823, § 2 (S.B. 331)", "citation": "Ga. L. 2022, Act 823, § 2 (S.B. 331)", "url": "https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2022-signed-legislation/sb-331/download", "proposition": "A local government entity may not adopt, maintain, or enforce requirements governing the hours or scheduling an employer must provide employees, or otherwise regulate employee output during work hours.", "verbatimQuote": "No local government entity may adopt, maintain, or enforce by charter, ordinance, regulation, rule, or resolution the hours or scheduling that an employer is required to provide employees or otherwise regulate employee output during work hours.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-pf-sb331-scheduling" } ] }, { "slug": "worker-classification", "label": "What test does the state use to classify a worker as an employee or contractor?", "heading": "Employee or independent contractor?", "answerText": "Where the Georgia chapter steps aside for a higher federal minimum wage, the terms that decide who is covered are the Fair Labor Standards Act's own: it supplies definitions of employ, employee, and employer. Under that Act, employ includes to suffer or permit to work, employee means any individual employed by an employer subject to enumerated exceptions, and employer includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, including a public agency. Those definitions, not a contract label, decide coverage. Federal law also treats the independent contractor line as real at the enterprise level: an enterprise means related activities performed through unified operation or common control for a common business purpose, but does not include the related activities performed for that enterprise by an independent contractor. Georgia contributes two narrower rules. First, on the duration of a hiring, if a contract of employment provides that wages are payable at a stipulated period, a presumption arises that the hiring is for that period, unless something else in the contract indicates a longer term, in which case the mere reservation of wages for a lesser time does not control. Second, Georgia addresses coemployment through professional employer organizations. The term means an employee leasing company that has established a coemployment relationship with another employer, pays the wages of the coemployer's employees, reserves a right of direction and control over them, and assumes responsibility for withholding and payment of payroll taxes. The coemployer must retain sufficient direction and control over the employees to conduct its business operations and meet its obligations to them, and unless otherwise agreed in writing it is the sole employer for licensing purposes, with written notice to the licensing agency and the employees required if the parties agree otherwise. The statute states its intent that professional employer organizations be considered employers under Title 34 and comply with the identified Code sections.", "sources": [ { "id": "wc-ocga-34-4-3c", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-3(c)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3(c)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W0-00008-00", "proposition": "The Georgia Minimum Wage Law does not apply to an employer subject to the minimum wage provisions of a federal act, as to employees that act covers, where the federal act provides a greater minimum wage.", "verbatimQuote": "This chapter shall not apply to any employer who is subject to the minimum wage provisions of any act of Congress as to employees covered thereby if such act of Congress provides for a minimum wage which is greater than the minimum wage which is provided for in this Code section.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-ocga-34-4-3c" }, { "id": "wc-flsa-employ", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(g)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(g)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, to employ includes to suffer or permit to work.", "verbatimQuote": "“Employ” includes to suffer or permit to work.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-flsa-employ" }, { "id": "wc-flsa-employee", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(e)(1)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(e)(1)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employee means any individual employed by an employer, except as provided in the enumerated paragraphs.", "verbatimQuote": "Except as provided in paragraphs (2), (3), and (4), the term “employee” means any individual employed by an employer.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-flsa-employee" }, { "id": "wc-flsa-employer", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(d)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(d)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employer includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee and includes a public agency, but excludes labor organizations not acting as an employer and their officers or agents.", "verbatimQuote": "“Employer” includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee and includes a public agency, but does not include any labor organization (other than when acting as an employer) or anyone acting in the capacity of officer or agent of such labor organization.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-flsa-employer" }, { "id": "wc-flsa-enterprise", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(r)(1)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(r)(1)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A federal enterprise consists of related activities performed through unified operation or common control for a common business purpose and does not include related activities performed for the enterprise by an independent contractor.", "verbatimQuote": "“Enterprise” means the related activities performed (either through unified operation or common control) by any person or persons for a common business purpose, and includes all such activities whether performed in one or more establishments or by one or more corporate or other organizational units including departments of an establishment operated through leasing arrangements, but shall not include the related activities performed for such enterprise by an independent contractor.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-flsa-enterprise" }, { "id": "wc-34-7-1-presumption", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-1", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-1", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XJ-00008-00", "proposition": "Where an employment contract makes wages payable at a stipulated period, the hiring is presumed to be for that period unless the contract indicates a longer term.", "verbatimQuote": "If a contract of employment provides that wages are payable at a stipulated period, the presumption shall arise that the hiring is for such period, provided that, if anything else in the contract indicates that the hiring was for a longer term, the mere reservation of wages for a lesser time will not control.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-34-7-1-presumption" }, { "id": "wc-peo-definition", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-6(a)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-6(a)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XS-00008-00", "proposition": "A professional employer organization is an employee leasing company in a coemployment relationship that pays the coemployer's employees, reserves a right of direction and control over them, and assumes responsibility for payroll tax withholding and payment.", "verbatimQuote": "As used in this Code section, the term “professional employer organization” means an employee leasing company as defined in Code Section 34-8-32 that has established a coemployment relationship with another employer, pays the wages of the employees of the coemployer, reserves a right of direction and control over the employees of the coemployer, and assumes responsibility for the withholding and payment of payroll taxes of the coemployer.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-peo-definition" }, { "id": "wc-peo-control", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-6(c)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-6(c)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XS-00008-00", "proposition": "A coemployer must retain sufficient direction and control over coemployed employees to conduct its business and meet its obligations to them, and is the sole employer for licensing purposes unless the parties agree otherwise in writing with notice to the licensing agency and the employees.", "verbatimQuote": "A coemployer of a professional employer organization shall retain sufficient direction and control over the employees involved in a coemployment relationship as is necessary to conduct its business operations and fulfill its obligations to such employees. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, such coemployer shall be considered to be the sole employer of such employees for licensing purposes, provided that nothing contained in this Code section shall be deemed to prohibit a professional employer organization and its coemployer from agreeing that the professional employer organization shall be considered to be an employer for licensing purposes. The professional employer organization shall give written notice of such an agreement to the appropriate licensing agency and to the employees involved.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-peo-control" }, { "id": "wc-peo-employer-status", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-7-6(d)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-7-6(d)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3XS-00008-00", "proposition": "Georgia law intends professional employer organizations to be considered employers under Title 34 and to comply with Code Sections 34-8-32, 34-8-34, and 34-8-172.", "verbatimQuote": "It is the intent of this Code section that professional employer organizations shall be considered to be employers under this title and are required to comply with the provisions of Code Sections 34-8-32, 34-8-34, and 34-8-172.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-wc-peo-employer-status" } ] }, { "slug": "tip-credit", "label": "Does the state allow a tip credit against the cash minimum wage?", "heading": "Is a tip credit allowed?", "answerText": "The Georgia Minimum Wage Law does not apply to any employee whose compensation consists wholly or partially of gratuities. That is an exclusion from the state chapter rather than a state tip credit: the state minimum wage simply does not reach the tipped employee, so there is no state cash wage against which to credit tips. Tipped workers in Georgia depend on the federal tip credit rules instead. Federal law defines a tipped employee as one engaged in an occupation in which the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. Where the federal tip credit is taken, the additional amount counted on account of tips may not exceed the value of the tips the employee actually received, and if the employee received less than the maximum tip credit amount in tips, the employer must pay the balance so the employee receives at least the minimum wage from the combination of wages and tips. The credit is conditional. It does not apply unless the employer has informed the employee of the statutory provisions and the employee has retained all tips received, except that tips may be pooled among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips. Federal regulation spells out what the notice covers, including the cash wage to be paid, the additional amount claimed as a tip credit, the tip retention and pooling rule, and the consequence that the credit does not apply to an employee who has not been informed. One prohibition applies regardless of whether a credit is taken: an employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purpose, including allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employees' tips.", "sources": [ { "id": "tc-ga-exclusion", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-3(b)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3(b)(5)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W0-00008-00", "proposition": "The Georgia Minimum Wage Law does not apply to any employee whose compensation consists wholly or partially of gratuities, among other excluded categories.", "verbatimQuote": "This chapter shall not apply with respect to: (1) Any employer that has sales of $40,000.00 per year or less; (2) Any employer having five employees or less; (3) Any employer of domestic employees; (4) Any employer who is a farm owner, sharecropper, or land renter; (5) Any employee whose compensation consists wholly or partially of gratuities; (6) Any employee who is a high school or college student; (7) Any individual who is employed as a newspaper carrier; or (8) Any individual who is employed by a nonprofit child-caring institution or long-term care facility serving children or mentally disabled adults who are enrolled in such institution and reside in residential facilities of the institution, if such employee resides in such facilities, receives without cost board and lodging from such institution, and is compensated on a cash basis at an annual rate of not less than $10,000.00.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-ga-exclusion" }, { "id": "tc-tipped-employee", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(t)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(t)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A tipped employee is an employee engaged in an occupation in which the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips.", "verbatimQuote": "“Tipped employee” means any employee engaged in an occupation in which he customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-tipped-employee" }, { "id": "tc-cap", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(m)(2)(A)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(A)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "The additional amount counted on account of tips may not exceed the value of the tips actually received by the employee.", "verbatimQuote": "The additional amount on account of tips may not exceed the value of the tips actually received by an employee.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-cap" }, { "id": "tc-makeup", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 531.59", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 531.59(b)", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-531.59", "proposition": "Where an employee receives less than the maximum tip credit amount in tips, the employer must pay the balance so the employee receives at least the minimum wage from the combination of wages and tips.", "verbatimQuote": "If the employee received less than the maximum tip credit amount in tips, the employer is required to pay the balance so that the employee receives at least the minimum wage with the defined combination of wages and tips.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-makeup" }, { "id": "tc-notice-retention", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(m)(2)(A)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(A)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "The tip credit does not apply unless the employee has been informed of the subsection's provisions and has retained all tips received, subject to pooling among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.", "verbatimQuote": "The preceding 2 sentences shall not apply with respect to any tipped employee unless such employee has been informed by the employer of the provisions of this subsection, and all tips received by such employee have been retained by the employee, except that this subsection shall not be construed to prohibit the pooling of tips among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-notice-retention" }, { "id": "tc-notice-contents", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 C.F.R. 531.59", "citation": "29 C.F.R. § 531.59(b)", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-531.59", "proposition": "The required tip credit notice covers the cash wage paid, the additional amount claimed as a tip credit capped at tips actually received, the employee's retention of all tips subject to a valid tip pool, and the rule that the credit does not apply to an employee who has not been informed.", "verbatimQuote": "The amount of the cash wage that is to be paid to the tipped employee by the employer; the additional amount by which the wages of the tipped employee are increased on account of the tip credit claimed by the employer, which amount may not exceed the value of the tips actually received by the employee; that all tips received by the tipped employee must be retained by the employee except for a tip pooling arrangement limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive tips; and that the tip credit shall not apply to any employee who has not been informed of the requirements in this section.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-notice-contents" }, { "id": "tc-no-employer-keep", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(m)(2)(B)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(B)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "An employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purpose, including allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion, whether or not a tip credit is taken.", "verbatimQuote": "An employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purposes, including allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employees' tips, regardless of whether or not the employer takes a tip credit.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-tc-no-employer-keep" } ] }, { "slug": "enforcement", "label": "How is wage-and-hour law enforced, and can employees sue?", "heading": "How is it enforced?", "answerText": "Both Georgia and federal law give employees a court remedy, and both add agency machinery on top. The Georgia private action. An employee paid less than the state minimum wage may bring a civil action in superior court, at any time within three years, to recover the difference between the amount paid and the state minimum wage, plus an additional equal amount as liquidated damages, together with costs and such reasonable attorney's fees as the court allows. That single provision supplies the forum, the three-year limitations period, the doubling of the shortfall, and fee shifting. No waiver. The claim cannot be contracted away or waived by acquiescence: no contract or agreement between employer and employees, and no acceptance of a lesser wage by an employee, bars the action. The federal private action. An employer that violates the federal minimum wage or overtime sections is liable to the affected employees for the unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation and an additional equal amount as liquidated damages. That action may be maintained in any federal or state court of competent jurisdiction by one or more employees on behalf of themselves and other employees similarly situated, and no employee becomes a party plaintiff without filing written consent in the court where the action is brought. The court must allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, plus costs of the action, in addition to any judgment for the plaintiffs. Federal liability is not confined to the corporate entity: the Act's definition of employer includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee. Federal agency enforcement. The Secretary is authorized to supervise payment of unpaid minimum wages or overtime compensation, and an employee's agreement to accept such payment waives the private action for those amounts and liquidated damages once payment is made in full. Federal law also authorizes a civil penalty not to exceed $1,100 for each repeated or willful violation of the minimum wage or overtime sections, and criminal exposure of a fine of not more than $10,000, imprisonment for not more than six months, or both, on conviction for a willful violation of the prohibited-acts section. Georgia agency enforcement. The Commissioner of Labor administers and enforces the Georgia Minimum Wage Law and may make rules and regulations for that administration. The Georgia Department of Labor's broader statutory duties include superintending enforcement of all labor laws whose enforcement is not otherwise specifically provided for, making necessary inspections, making investigations and reporting on labor conditions, and prescribing rules and regulations for proper administration and enforcement. As a practical matter, the department's own guidance notes that it receives many inquiries about employment issues but that resolution of most workplace problems is the responsibility of several federal agencies. Recordkeeping and posting. Employers subject to the state chapter must maintain records of hours worked and wages paid, and those records are open to inspection by the Commissioner, a deputy, or any authorized agent of the department at any reasonable time. Each covered employer must also post copies of any regulation or order issued under the chapter in a conspicuous place in an area frequented by employees. What Georgia does not add. The state private action the cited sections create runs to payment of less than the state minimum wage, so a worker whose complaint concerns overtime, breaks, or the timing of a final check is pursuing a federal claim.", "sources": [ { "id": "enf-flsa-employer-person", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 203(d)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 203(d)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section203&edition=prelim", "proposition": "The federal definition of employer reaches any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee.", "verbatimQuote": "“Employer” includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee and includes a public agency, but does not include any labor organization (other than when acting as an employer) or anyone acting in the capacity of officer or agent of such labor organization.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-employer-person" }, { "id": "enf-ga-action", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-6", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-6", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W4-00008-00", "proposition": "An employee paid less than the state minimum wage may bring a civil action in superior court within three years for the difference plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, together with costs and reasonable attorney's fees.", "verbatimQuote": "If any employer pays any employee a lesser amount than the minimum wage provided in this chapter, the employee, at any time within three years, may bring a civil action in superior court for the recovery of the difference between the amount paid and the minimum wage provided in this chapter, plus an additional amount equal to the original claim, which shall be allowed as liquidated damages, together with costs and such reasonable attorney's fees as may be allowed by the court.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-action" }, { "id": "enf-ga-nowaiver", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-6", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-6", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W4-00008-00", "proposition": "Neither a contract or agreement between employer and employees nor an employee's acceptance of a lesser wage bars the state minimum wage action.", "verbatimQuote": "No contract or agreement between any employer and his employees nor any acceptance of a lesser wage by any employee shall bar the action.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-nowaiver" }, { "id": "enf-ga-commissioner", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-2", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-2", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3VY-00008-00", "proposition": "The Commissioner of Labor administers and enforces the Georgia Minimum Wage Law and may make rules and regulations for its administration.", "verbatimQuote": "The Commissioner of Labor shall administer and enforce this chapter and may make rules and regulations for such administration.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-commissioner" }, { "id": "enf-ga-commissioner-powers", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-2-6(a)", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-2-6(a)(1)-(4)", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3V9-00008-00", "proposition": "The Commissioner of Labor superintends the enforcement of Georgia labor laws whose enforcement is not otherwise specifically provided for, makes the necessary inspections, makes investigations and reports on labor conditions, and prescribes rules for the administration and enforcement of Title 34.", "verbatimQuote": "In addition to such other duties and powers as may be conferred upon him by law, the Commissioner of Labor shall have the power, jurisdiction, and authority: (1) To superintend the enforcement of all labor laws in the State of Georgia, the enforcement of which is not otherwise specifically provided for, and all rules and regulations made pursuant to this title; (2) To make or cause to be made all necessary inspections in order to see that all laws and the rules made pursuant thereto which the department has the duty, power, and authority to enforce are promptly and effectively carried out; (3) To make investigations, collect and compile statistical information, and report upon the conditions of labor generally and upon all matters relating to the enforcement and effect of this chapter and of the rules issued thereunder; (4) To prescribe such rules and regulations, consistent with the terms, intent, and purposes of this title, except for Chapter 9 of this title, necessary for the proper administration and enforcement thereof;", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-commissioner-powers" }, { "id": "enf-ga-records", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-5", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-5", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W3-00008-00", "proposition": "An employer subject to the Georgia Minimum Wage Law must maintain records of hours worked and wages paid and furnish the Commissioner on demand a sworn statement of those hours and wages.", "verbatimQuote": "Every employer subject to this chapter or any regulation pursuant thereto shall maintain records showing the hours worked by each employee and the wages paid to him and shall furnish to the Commissioner upon demand a sworn statement of the hours worked and wages paid to each person in his or its employment covered by this chapter.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-records" }, { "id": "enf-ga-inspection-records", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-5", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-5", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W3-00008-00", "proposition": "Records of hours worked and wages paid are open to inspection by the Commissioner, a deputy, or any authorized agent of the department at any reasonable time.", "verbatimQuote": "The records covering such hours and payments shall be open to inspection by the Commissioner, his deputy, or any authorized agent of the department at any reasonable time.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-inspection-records" }, { "id": "enf-ga-posting", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "O.C.G.A. 34-4-5", "citation": "O.C.G.A. § 34-4-5", "url": "https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&pddocfullpath=/shared/document/statutes-legislation/urn:contentItem:6348-FXM1-DYB7-W3W3-00008-00", "proposition": "Each employer subject to the Georgia Minimum Wage Law must post copies of any regulation or order issued under it in a conspicuous place in an area frequented by employees.", "verbatimQuote": "Each employer subject to this chapter shall post copies of any regulation or order issued pursuant to its provisions in a conspicuous place in an area frequented by his employees.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-ga-posting" }, { "id": "enf-gdol-referral", "authorityType": "agency-guidance", "tier": "official-source-backed", "title": "Georgia Department of Labor, Obtain Information About an Employment Issue", "citation": "Georgia Department of Labor, Obtain Information About an Employment Issue", "url": "https://dol.georgia.gov/laws-and-rules/obtain-information-about-employment-issue", "proposition": "The Georgia Department of Labor states that resolution of most workplace problems is the responsibility of several federal agencies.", "verbatimQuote": "The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) receives many inquiries for help with various employment issues; however, resolution of most workplace problems is the responsibility of several federal agencies.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-gdol-referral" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-liability", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(b)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(b)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "An employer violating the federal minimum wage or overtime sections is liable to affected employees for unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation and an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.", "verbatimQuote": "Any employer who violates the provisions of section 206 or section 207 of this title shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-liability" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-forum", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(b)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(b)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A federal wage action may be maintained against any employer in any federal or state court of competent jurisdiction by one or more employees on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated employees.", "verbatimQuote": "An action to recover the liability prescribed in the preceding sentences may be maintained against any employer (including a public agency) in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees for and in behalf of himself or themselves and other employees similarly situated.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-forum" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-consent", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(b)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(b)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "No employee becomes a party plaintiff in a federal wage action without giving written consent filed in the court where the action is brought.", "verbatimQuote": "No employee shall be a party plaintiff to any such action unless he gives his consent in writing to become such a party and such consent is filed in the court in which such action is brought.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-consent" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-fees", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(b)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(b)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "In a federal wage action the court must allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, plus costs of the action, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiffs.", "verbatimQuote": "The court in such action shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-fees" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-secretary", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(c)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(c)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "The Secretary may supervise payment of unpaid federal minimum wages or overtime compensation, and an employee's agreement to accept such payment waives the private action for those amounts and liquidated damages upon payment in full.", "verbatimQuote": "The Secretary is authorized to supervise the payment of the unpaid minimum wages or the unpaid overtime compensation owing to any employee or employees under section 206 or section 207 of this title, and the agreement of any employee to accept such payment shall upon payment in full constitute a waiver by such employee of any right he may have under subsection (b) of this section to such unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation and an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-secretary" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-civil-penalty", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(e)(2)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(e)(2)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A person who repeatedly or willfully violates the federal minimum wage or overtime sections is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $1,100 for each violation.", "verbatimQuote": "Any person who repeatedly or willfully violates section 206 or 207 of this title, relating to wages, shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $1,100 for each such violation.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-civil-penalty" }, { "id": "enf-flsa-criminal", "authorityType": "primary-law", "tier": "primary-source-backed", "title": "29 U.S.C. 216(a)", "citation": "29 U.S.C. § 216(a)", "url": "https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title29-section216&edition=prelim", "proposition": "A person who willfully violates the prohibited acts section is subject on conviction to a fine of not more than $10,000, imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.", "verbatimQuote": "Any person who willfully violates any of the provisions of section 215 of this title shall upon conviction thereof be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000, or to imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.", "anchor": "https://openagreements.org/practice-guides/wage-and-hour/us/georgia#src-enf-flsa-criminal" } ] } ] } }