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Last updated on: July 22nd, 2024
Hours & Pay Regulations
Normal Working Hours
The Fair Labor Standards Act defines the workweek as a fixed and recurring period of 168 hours comprising seven consecutive 24-hour periods that do not need to coincide with the calendar week. It is adjustable only if the change is designed to be permanent. Each week is considered on its own for purposes of calculating overtime. The hours of two or more weeks may not be averaged.
Traveling Time – Time spent traveling during regular work hours is considered compensable work time. However, home-to-work travel in an employer-provided vehicle, or activities incidental to using the vehicle for commuting, generally do not count as “hours worked” and do not require compensation.
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- Name in full, and on the same record, the employee’s identifying symbol or number if it is used in place of the employee’s name on any time, work, or payroll record;
- Home address, including zip code;
- Date of birth, if under 19;
- Occupation in which employed;
- Regular hourly rate of pay for any workweek and an explanation of the basis of pay by indicating the monetary amount paid on a per hour, per day, per week, per piece, commission on sales, or other basis, including the amount and nature of each payment;
- Total additions to or deductions from wages paid each pay period including employee purchase orders or wage assignments, including, for individual employee records, the dates, amounts, and nature of the items that make up the total additions and deductions;
- Total wages paid each pay period;
- Date of payment and the pay period covered by payment;
- The amount of pay the employee has received as earned paid sick time; and
- Time of day and day of week on which the employee’s workweek begins. If the employee is part of a workforce or employed in or by an establishment all of whose workers have a workweek beginning at the same time on the same day, then a single notation of the time of the day and beginning day of the workweek for the whole workforce or establishment is permitted;
- Hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek;
- Total daily or weekly wages due for hours worked during the workday or workweek;
- The amount of earned paid sick time available to the employee;
- The amount of earned paid sick time taken by the employee to date in the year.
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Overtime
Pay – An employee is entitled to premium pay at the rate of 1.5 times their regular rate for all hours worked excess in a workweek.
Breaks
Employers are not legally required to provide breaks or meal periods to their employees under either the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or Arizona law. It’s common for employers to provide short breaks lasting from 5 to 20 minutes. According to the FLSA, employees must be compensated during short breaks, but employers aren’t obligated to pay for meal periods lasting 30 minutes or more, provided that employees are free to use this time as they wish and aren’t required to work during it.
Under the FLSA, an employee who takes a break that is 20 minutes or less must be paid for their break time at their normal rate. This includes meal, religious, health, and most likely restroom breaks as long as the break is under 20 minutes. An employer does not have to pay an employee for a break if:
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- the break is longer than 20 minutes; and
- the employee is relieved of all work during the break.
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No Penalty for Missing Break as per law
Annual Leave
In Arizona, an employer is not required to provide its employees with vacation benefits, either paid or unpaid. Employers may choose to provide vacation leave in the form of an agreement.
Special Leave
Duration of Sick Leave: Employees accrue a minimum of one hour of earned paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 15 or more employees must allow employees to accrue and use up to 40 hours of earned paid sick time per year. Employers with fewer than 15 employees must allow employees to accrue and use up to 24 hours of earned paid sick time per year.
Earned paid sick time may be used for the following purposes:
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- Employees can use earned paid sick time for their own or a family member’s illness, injury, health condition, or medical care (including preventive care).
- Employees can also use it if they or a family member are victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking.
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Carryover: Unused earned paid sick time carries over to the following year, but employers may cap the carryover amount at 40 hours (or 24 hours for smaller employers).
Notice Requirements: Employees must provide advance notice if the need for sick time is foreseeable. If the need is not foreseeable, employees should provide notice as soon as practicable.
Employers can require documentation for absences of three or more consecutive days, but cannot demand details about the health condition. Arizona Revised Statutes § 23-373.
Employers with 50 or more employees also must allow employees who are crime victims to take leave for certain reasons; however, this leave can be unpaid.
Funeral Leave is based on an agreement between employer and employee.
Employers must provide employees summoned for jury duty with paid time off in order to serve as jurors. Employees are required to provide their employers with their jury summons the next working day after the employees receive them. An employer may not require an employee to use annual, vacation, unpaid leave, or sick leave for time spent serving as a juror. The employer may be able to deduct wages the employee received for serving as a juror from the employee’s compensation. An employer may not discharge or subject an employee to any adverse employment action due to serving as a juror, provided the employee returns to work following dismissal from jury duty.
Employees who are registered to vote must be permitted to take the necessary time off from work, up to one hour, to vote in any municipal, county, state or federal primary or general election. Employees must provide reasonable notice to their employers if they require time off to vote. The employer may specify the hours of leave. However, if an employee’s work schedule begins at least two hours after the polls open, or ends at least one hour prior to the polls closing, the employee is not eligible for voting leave.
State employees are allowed up to 30 days paid leave for organ donation and 5 days for bone marrow donation. (§41-706, R2-5AB609).
