The Fair Labor Standards Act is the main wage and hour law for workers in Georgia. The state’s own labor code is thin: Georgia’s minimum wage is only $5.15 per hour, there is no state overtime statute, and there are no state-required meal or rest breaks for adults. The FLSA fills in nearly everything, which means most Georgia employers must pay at least $7.25 per hour, pay time-and-a-half after 40 hours in a workweek, follow federal child labor restrictions, and keep accurate payroll records.
Which Georgia Employers Are Covered
The FLSA reaches Georgia employers two ways. A business that qualifies as an “enterprise engaged in commerce” with at least $500,000 in annual gross sales must comply with the full set of FLSA requirements.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 203 – Definitions Hospitals, schools, preschools, and government agencies are covered no matter their revenue.
Even when the business falls below $500,000, individual employees are covered if their own work touches interstate commerce. That definition is broad. Processing credit card transactions, receiving goods shipped from out of state, making calls to customers in other states, or sending email across state lines can all pull a worker in. As a practical matter, this sweeps in the vast majority of Georgia workers.
Georgia’s own minimum wage law fills a narrow gap. It covers employers with more than five employees and over $40,000 in annual sales that somehow fall outside federal coverage, and even then it exempts itself when the FLSA applies: Georgia Code 34-4-3(c) states the state wage requirement does not apply to any employer already subject to a higher federal minimum wage.2Justia. Georgia Code 34-4-3 – Amount of Minimum Wage To Be Paid by Employers The $5.15 figure almost never controls in practice.
Minimum Wage
The federal $7.25 per hour applies to most Georgia workers because their employers meet one of the FLSA’s coverage tests.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage Where both the federal and state laws apply, the higher rate wins.
Tipped Workers
An employer may pay a tipped employee a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour, as long as tips bring total hourly pay to at least $7.25.4U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees Before taking the tip credit, the employer must tell the worker the cash wage amount, the tip credit amount claimed, that the worker keeps all tips except through a valid tip pool of customarily tipped employees, and that the employer will cover any shortfall if tips do not reach $7.25. Skip the notice or fail to make up the shortfall and the employer loses the tip credit entirely and owes the full $7.25.
Workers Under 20
A worker under age 20 may be paid $4.25 per hour during the first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job. After that period, or once the worker turns 20, the standard $7.25 applies. An employer cannot displace existing workers to hire youth at the lower rate.
Overtime
Georgia has no state overtime law, so the FLSA controls. A non-exempt employee who works more than 40 hours in a single workweek is entitled to one and a half times their regular rate for every hour past 40.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours
“Regular rate” is not always the hourly wage on the paystub. It includes commissions, non-discretionary bonuses, and certain other compensation. A worker earning $15 per hour who also receives a $200 weekly production bonus has a regular rate higher than $15, and the overtime premium has to reflect that blended figure.
Each workweek stands alone. An employer cannot average hours across two weeks to avoid overtime. Fifty hours one week and 30 the next still produces 10 hours of overtime for the first week.
When Training, Travel, and Meetings Must Be Paid
Time away from the main work station is not automatically unpaid. Training sessions and meetings count as paid work time unless all four of these conditions are met:
- The session is outside normal work hours
- Attendance is truly voluntary, with no threat of discipline or negative consequences
- The content is not directly related to the employee’s current job
- The employee performs no productive work during the session
Fail any one and the time is compensable. Mandatory safety meetings during lunch, employer-required certifications, and on-the-job training all count toward hours worked and figure into overtime.
Travel follows similar logic. A normal commute from home to a fixed workplace is unpaid. Travel between job sites during the workday is paid. So is travel to a location other than the usual workplace when the employer requires it, such as reporting to a warehouse to pick up equipment before heading to a job site. The question is whether the travel benefits the employer or is simply the worker’s ordinary trip to and from work.
Who Is Exempt from Overtime
Certain salaried workers are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime. These “white collar” exemptions cover executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and some computer employees, and they only apply when both a salary test and a duties test are met.
The current enforceable salary threshold is $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. A worker earning less than that cannot be classified as exempt regardless of job duties. Highly compensated employees earning at least $107,432 per year face a looser duties test but still must perform at least one exempt duty on a regular basis.6U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions
Meeting the salary floor is not enough. The actual day-to-day work has to match one of the exempt categories:
- Executive: primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department, and regularly directing the work of at least two full-time employees.7eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees
- Administrative: office or non-manual work directly tied to management or general business operations, with regular use of independent judgment on significant matters.
- Professional: work requiring advanced knowledge in a specialized field, usually acquired through extended formal education, such as licensed engineers, attorneys, or physicians.
- Outside sales: primary duty is making sales or obtaining contracts, with work customarily performed away from the employer’s premises. No salary threshold applies.
- Computer employees: systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers doing high-level design or analysis, paid at least $684 per week on salary or $27.63 per hour if hourly.
Courts and Department of Labor investigators look at what the employee actually does, not the job title. A “manager” who spends most of a shift stocking shelves and running a register is not performing exempt executive duties, and calling them a manager on paper does not change that. Misclassification is one of the most common FLSA violations and often falls apart when the written job description bears little resemblance to the real workday.
Meal and Rest Breaks Are Not Required
Neither the FLSA nor Georgia law requires an employer to provide meal periods or rest breaks to adult employees.8Georgia Department of Labor. Breaks and Meals This surprises many workers who assume a lunch break is guaranteed. When an employer does offer short breaks, generally five to 20 minutes, federal rules treat them as paid work time. Meal periods of 30 minutes or longer may be unpaid, but only when the worker is completely relieved of all duties. An employee eating at a desk while still answering phones is working, and that time has to be paid.
Child Labor Rules
Both federal and Georgia rules apply to employing minors, and whichever is more protective controls.
Georgia requires an employment certificate (work permit) for any minor under 16, issued through the county school superintendent’s office, a designated public school official, or the administrative officer of a licensed private school. The employer must keep a copy on the premises where the minor works for the duration of employment.9Georgia Department of Labor. Child Labor Employment Certificate Instructions
Workers who are 14 or 15 face the tightest limits. They cannot work during the hours their local school system is in session, whether they attend public school, private school, or are homeschooled.10Georgia Department of Labor. Child Labor Work Hour Restrictions Federal rules also keep 14- and 15-year-olds in non-hazardous, non-manufacturing jobs, with daily and weekly hour caps during the school year. Workers aged 16 and 17 have no work-hour restrictions under state or federal law but are still barred from federally designated hazardous occupations, including operating power-driven equipment, roofing, excavation, and demolition.
Break Time for Nursing Employees
The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, which amended the FLSA, requires most employers to provide reasonable break time for a worker to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth. The employer must also provide a private space, shielded from view and free from intrusion, that is not a bathroom.11U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Protections to Pump at Work The protection covers a wide range of workers, including agricultural workers, nurses, teachers, truck drivers, home care workers, and managers. An employer can claim an exemption only by showing compliance would create significant expense or unsafe conditions.
Retaliation Is Illegal
The FLSA makes it unlawful for an employer to fire, demote, cut hours, or otherwise retaliate against a worker for filing a wage complaint, cooperating with a Department of Labor investigation, or testifying in an FLSA proceeding.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 215 – Prohibited Acts The protection applies even if the complaint turns out to be wrong, as long as the worker filed in good faith. An employee fired the week after calling the Wage and Hour Division has a strong retaliation claim regardless of whether the underlying wage issue is ultimately proven.
How to File a Wage Complaint
A Georgia worker who believes an employer is violating the FLSA can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division by calling 1-866-487-9243 or using the agency’s online portal.13U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint No attorney is required. A coworker or family member can file on the worker’s behalf. Immigration status does not affect the right to file.
Investigators may contact the employer, review payroll records, and interview workers. An investigation that starts from one complaint often expands to cover the whole workforce if a pattern turns up. A worker can also skip the DOL and file a private lawsuit for unpaid wages, but the DOL route is free and often faster.
The most common remedy is recovery of all unpaid back wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, which effectively doubles what should have been paid.14U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments The statute of limitations is two years, or three years if the violation was willful.15U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay Repeated or willful violations also carry civil money penalties of up to $2,515 per violation, adjusted annually for inflation. In a workplace with dozens of misclassified employees, those penalties add up fast. Willful violations can trigger criminal prosecution, with fines up to $10,000 and up to six months in prison on a second conviction.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties Criminal cases are rare, but the DOL refers them to the Department of Justice when an employer shows a clear pattern of deliberate underpayment.