Transcript
[The Congressional Accountability Act: The Fair Labor Standards Act]
Christopher: The CAA applies certain rights and protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, to the legislative branch.
William: These are the rules that protect employees on issues like minimum wage, overtime, equal pay, and break time requirements for nursing mothers.
Karen: Some employees in the legislative branch are exempt from overtime rules, but non-exempt employees are entitled to be paid time and a half for overtime hours.
Jim: Our shop has to keep up to meet demand. In the past, if we needed to get the job done, management approved overtime. Then I got a new supervisor, and he decided that we weren’t going to do overtime anymore. Problem was, he didn’t want us to miss any deadlines either.
I told him we can’t meet the deadlines without working some overtime. And then, and this blew my mind, he said if we needed to put in extra time to get the job done, it was going to be off the clock. He didn’t want us to report the hours that we really worked.
Monique: For non-exempt employees, the FLSA rules are very clear. They must be paid one and a half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in a work week in excess of 40.
Karen: Managers can’t ask or permit covered employees to work more than 40 hours and not report them in their time entries.
Christopher: The equal pay provisions of the FLSA also require that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment.
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Stacey: I work as an administrative assistant. When I was hired, it was my first real job out of college and I was really excited. Our office hired two of us at the same time, me and John. We perform the same kind of work at the same place, and we have the same responsibilities. I just found out that he was hired at a higher rate than me. It was his first job too. I was furious.
Christopher: The Equal Pay Act sets clear rules. Employing offices may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs in similar working conditions that require substantially equal skills, effort, and responsibility.
Rosario: There are a few exceptions to this provision, including if the pay differential is based on a seniority system, a merits-based system, a system that measures quality or quantity of production, and if the differential is based on a factor other than sex.
Karen: The FLSA covers many other protections as well, including rules about minimum wage and child labor.
Narrator: The Congressional Accountability Act applies certain rights and protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, to covered employees. These rights and protections require payment of the minimum wage and overtime compensation to nonexempt employees, place restrictions on child labor, and prohibit sex discrimination in wages paid to men and women.
The Office of Workplace Rights works to help ensure that the legislative branch is free of discrimination and harassment, safety and health hazards, accessibility barriers, and employment and labor violations. If you have questions or concerns about fair labor standards, or any of your rights under the CAA, reach out to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.
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