WASHINGTON — Dry cleaners and other small-business owners who do not stay compliant with federal, state and local wage and hour laws, including changing regulations, are putting their business at unacceptable, and avoidable, risk.

This was the message of Bradford Kelley and Mike Paglialonga of Littler Mendelson P.C., a national law firm that specializes in labor and employment law. The pair recently spoke in the presentation “Wage and Hour Compliance for Small Business,” hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

In Part 1 of this series, we examined the differing minimum wage laws on the federal, state and local level. Today, we’ll continue by exploring the rules around overtime. While some are common sense, owners can become lost in the weeds with rules that might not be as clear.

Going Into Overtime

“The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires for pay for time-and-a-half over 40 hours in a workweek,” Kelley says. “So, this means that, for anybody who goes beyond those 40 hours, you've got to calculate overtime.”

The 40-hour workweek might not be something that employers can just take for granted, Kelley adds.

“There have been a lot of proposals recently,” he says. “There was a proposal in the Senate recently to reduce the 40 hours down to 32, to get it down to a 32-hour workweek.”

The prospect of artificial intelligence becoming part of the workplace is also under consideration, Kelley says.

“If AI provides so much productivity value, and it...

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