State Labor Guidance
Free state labor-agency opinion letters, administrative policies, and interpretive notices, with plain-English summaries, current status, and the official source on every page.
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Reporting Required by Supplemental Healthcare Staffing Agencies
This Division notice explains a reporting duty under C.R.S. 8-4-125: supplemental healthcare staffing agencies (temp agencies that place workers like nurses and therapists with healthcare facilities) …
Prohibited and Permitted Duties for Minors
This Division notice, a companion to INFO #22A, lists what work minors under 18 may and may not perform under the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act (CYEOA) and federal law: per se hazardous du…
Employment of Minors, Minimum Wages, Hours, Exemptions, Fines, and Procedures
This Division notice explains rules under the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act (CYEOA) for employing minors: employers may pay most non-emancipated minors 85% of the state minimum wage (never…
Changing therapists from employees to independent contractors for a new flat-rate payment structure
A mental-health services company asked the Nevada Labor Commissioner whether it could classify a new group of therapists as independent contractors, paid a flat rate per appointment, while its existin…
Access to Personal Social Media — Colorado Social Media and the Workplace Law
This Division notice explains Colorado's Social Media and the Workplace Law: employers can't ask employees or applicants to hand over social media logins, change privacy settings, or add the employer …
Accessing Consumer Credit Information — The Colorado Employment Opportunity Act
This Division notice explains the Colorado Employment Opportunity Act: employers with 4+ employees generally can't request or use an applicant's or employee's consumer credit information (credit score…
Limits on Criminal History Screening of Applicants — Colorado Chance to Compete Act
This Division notice explains Colorado's Chance to Compete Act, a "ban the box" law: employers can't ask about or require disclosure of an applicant's criminal history on an initial job application, o…
Restrictions on Age Information in Job Applications — Job Application Fairness Act (JAFA)
This Division notice explains the Job Application Fairness Act (JAFA), effective July 1, 2024: employers can't ask a job applicant's age, birth date, or school attendance/graduation dates on an initia…
Summary: Required and Prohibited Information in Job Postings and the Hiring Process
This short Division notice is a roadmap to Colorado's "Posting, Screening, and Transparency" (POST) laws governing job postings and hiring: pay/job-opportunity transparency (INFO #9A), a ban on asking…
Paid Sick Leave under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA)
This is the Division's detailed, actively-updated guidance on paid leave under Colorado's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA): which employers and employees are covered, how the 1-hour-per-30-h…
Equal Pay and Opportunities Act
This L&I administrative policy explains Washington's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act: the duty to pay "similarly employed" workers equally regardless of gender or protected-class membership (with perm…
Wage and hour compliance notice for assisted living homes
Alaska's Wage and Hour office sent this industry-wide letter to assisted living home (ALH) operators, addressing caregiver-specific issues: the 2025 paid sick leave law, unwritten hiring agreements, m…
General wage and hour compliance notice for all industries
Alaska's Wage and Hour office issued this general industry-wide letter covering the most common sources of complaints across all employers: the 2025 paid sick leave law, written hiring agreements, min…
Wage and hour compliance notice for the nail salon industry
Responding to a rise in complaints about salon workers misclassified as independent contractors, Alaska's Wage and Hour office sent this industry-wide letter to nail salons. It covers the 2025 paid si…
Wage and hour compliance notice for personal care attendant agencies
Alaska's Wage and Hour office sent this industry-wide letter to agency-based and consumer-directed personal care attendant (PCA) agencies, responding to recurring problems: the 2025 paid sick leave la…
Wage and hour compliance notice for the restaurant industry
Alaska's Wage and Hour office sent this industry-wide letter to restaurants covering the issues most common to the industry: the 2025 paid sick leave law, minimum wage and overtime, when chefs can be …
Paid Sick Leave - Frequently Asked Questions
This L&I administrative policy answers frequently asked questions about Washington's paid sick leave law: who is covered, how leave accrues (1 hour per 40 hours worked) and carries over, when and how …
Meal & Rest Break Protections for Certain Healthcare Workers
This L&I administrative policy explains additional meal and rest break protections for certain hospital employees beyond Washington's general break rules: who is covered, uninterrupted-break requireme…
Labor Conditions for Agricultural Work: Heat Protection; Short-Handled Tool & Hand-Weeding/Thinning Limits; Public Health Emergency Protections
This Division notice details Colorado agricultural workers' heat safety protections (water, shade, extra rest breaks, and annual training/monitoring obligations once it's 80 degrees or hotter, with st…
Appealing a determination after the investigation
This Division notice explains how a claimant or employer appeals a wage claim determination: the 35-day filing deadline, what filing an appeal does and doesn't stay, how to submit new evidence and req…
Summary: the Division wage claim investigation, appeals, and enforcement process
This short Division notice is a roadmap to the wage-claim process: how the Division investigates a complaint of unpaid wages (with a $7,500 cap on what it can order), the penalties and fines that can …
Commissions and Bonuses
This Division notice explains when Colorado employers must pay commissions and bonuses: they must be earned, owed under the terms of the agreement, and determinable in amount, and can't be waived once…
Employee Access to Personnel File
This L&I administrative policy explains employees' and former employees' right under RCW 49.12.240 to review and receive a free copy of their personnel file within 21 days of a request, what records c…
Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Parents
This Division notice summarizes nursing employees' rights to pump at work under Colorado's Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act and the federal PUMP Act: required unpaid or paid break time…
Timing of Wage Payments, & Required Record-Keeping
This Division notice explains when Colorado employers must pay wages: regular pay periods and paydays, the strict deadlines for paying out all wages when an employee is fired, laid off, or quits, and …
Tips (Gratuities) and Tipped Employees Under Colorado Wage Law
This Division notice explains how Colorado law protects employee tips and when employers may pay tipped employees less than full minimum wage using a "tip credit." It covers the current tip-credit amo…
Local Minimum Wages
This Division notice explains how Colorado local governments (cities, towns, counties, and combined city-counties) may adopt a local minimum wage higher than the state minimum wage: the annual 15% inc…
Overtime and Minimum Wage Obligations for Agricultural Employment
This Division notice explains minimum wage ($15.16/hour in 2026, or a range-worker weekly salary) and overtime pay obligations for Colorado agricultural employers under the ALRRA and COMPS Order. Most…
Summary: Requirements of the Agricultural Labor Rights & Responsibilities Act (ALRRA)
This short Division notice is a roadmap to Colorado's Agricultural Labor Rights & Responsibilities Act (ALRRA): minimum wage and overtime rules, rest and meal breaks, worksite access to key service pr…
Key wage and hour rights under Colorado's COMPS and PAY CALC Orders
This annually-updated Division notice summarizes the core wage-and-hour rights and obligations under Colorado's Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards ("COMPS") Order and its yearly PAY CALC wage figures:…
Law Restricting Mandatory Overtime for Certain Healthcare Employees
This L&I administrative policy explains RCW 49.28.130-.150, which bars covered health care facilities from requiring certain credentialed healthcare employees (nurses, surgical technologists, respirat…
Job Posting Requirements
This L&I administrative policy explains the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act's job-posting disclosure duty (RCW 49.58.110): employers with 15 or more employees (including remote/out-of-state employers …
Minimum wage for tipped employees who also do non-tip work in the same shift
DLS addressed how to pay tipped employees who also perform non-tip work (like kitchen prep or cleaning) during the same shift. It concluded that while the service rate plus tips can satisfy minimum wa…
Transportation Network Companies (TNCs): Driver Rights and Labor Transparency
This Division notice explains the Transportation Network Company Transparency Act, which covers rideshare platforms ("TNCs"). It requires TNCs to disclose pay, time, and distance for each ride offer a…
Local Government Union Requirements and Employee Protections
This is the newest chapter of DOLI's Field Operations Manual, added in 2025 to explain how Virginia's private-sector labor-organization protections now extend to local government employers and employe…
Meal and Rest Periods
This Division notice explains Colorado's meal- and rest-period rules under the COMPS Order: a duty-free 30-minute meal period for shifts over 5 hours (paid if truly impractical to relieve the employee…
Recordkeeping and Access to Payroll Records (Non-agricultural Employment)
This L&I administrative policy explains non-agricultural employers' payroll recordkeeping duties under the Industrial Welfare Act and Minimum Wage Act: what records must be kept (names, addresses, pay…
Which employees performing some managerial tasks may join a tip pool
A law firm asked the Nevada Labor Commissioner whether hourly, non-exempt employees who perform some managerial or supervisory tasks (but can't hire, fire, discipline, schedule, or otherwise set other…
Orders of wages, penalties, fines, and consequences for non-compliance
This Division notice details the penalties an employer owes an employee and fines it owes the state for unpaid wages, how the amounts scale with whether the violation was "willful" (with detailed case…
Worker Classification: Who Is and Isn't an "Employee" Protected by Labor Standards Laws?
This Division notice explains how Colorado decides whether a worker is a protected "employee" or an independent contractor under the Colorado Wage Act's definition, regardless of how a business labels…
Individual Liability under the Colorado Wage Act and Healthy Families and Workplaces Act
This Division notice explains when an individual person, not just the employer business, can be personally liable for unpaid wages under the Colorado Wage Act and Healthy Families and Workplaces Act: …
The wage claim investigation process
This Division notice walks through the mechanics of a wage-claim investigation step by step: who may file (including misclassified independent contractors and workers regardless of immigration status)…
Overlapping 24-hour workdays and daily overtime, with worked examples
An attorney asked the Nevada Labor Commissioner to clarify an earlier opinion (AO-2024-01) on how a "workday" -- a rolling 24-consecutive-hour period starting when an employee begins a shift -- can ov…
Deductions from, and Credits towards, Employee Pay
This Division notice explains that Colorado employers may deduct from wages only in five lawful categories (legally required deductions, written-agreement deductions primarily benefiting the employee,…
Agricultural Employee Rest Periods, Meal Periods, and Service Provider Access
This Division notice details Colorado agricultural workers' rest and meal period rights (paid 10-15 minute rest breaks every 4 hours, 30-minute meal breaks in shifts over 5 hours), additional paid and…
Voluntary payroll deductions for employee food purchases, logged rather than individually signed
An employer offering discounted employee meals asked the Nevada Labor Commissioner whether its practice -- employees sign a shared logbook per purchase, and the total shows as one lump deduction line …
When daily overtime hours exceed weekly overtime hours (or vice versa), which controls
A law firm asked the Nevada Labor Commissioner how to calculate overtime for an employee entitled to daily overtime (working more than 8 hours in a workday) who also crosses 40 hours in the same workw…
Shift differential pay on prevailing-wage public works projects
An attorney asked whether the Labor Commissioner fully adopts a union collective bargaining agreement's shift-differential terms for the Electrician Wireman craft on public works projects, whether non…
Wage and hour compliance notice for shore-based fish processors
Responding to recurring complaints and enforcement activity in the shore-based fish processing industry, Alaska's Wage and Hour office sent this industry-wide letter explaining how the Alaska Wage and…
Flexible work-hour ('flex') plans industry notice
Alaska's Wage and Hour office issued this industry notice explaining "flex plans" — a voluntary alternative work schedule (minimum four workdays and 33 hours, capped at 10 hours/day and 40 hours/week)…
Prevailing wage does not extend to post-completion plant establishment work
A landscaping subcontractor asked whether Nevada prevailing wage applies to one-year "plant establishment work" (watering, weeding, and replacing dead plants) performed after a public works project re…
Minimum wage does not apply to work assignments in rehabilitation programs
DLS was asked whether work performed by people participating in rehabilitation programs at charitable, educational, or religious institutions is subject to the state minimum wage. DLS concluded it is …
Truck drivers exempt from Apprenticeship Utilization Act reporting
Responding to inquiries from the trucking industry, the Labor Commissioner addressed whether Senate Bill 82's Apprenticeship Utilization Act (AUA) annual reporting requirement -- which requires contra…
The Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act ("COBCA")
This Division notice explains the Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act (COBCA), effective July 1, 2023, which gives most Colorado county employees (including county sheriff employees) the rig…
Daily overtime for a '4/10s' employee who works more than ten hours in a day
A law firm asked the Nevada Labor Commissioner whether an employee who regularly works a "4/10s" schedule (four 10-hour days) owes daily overtime only for the hours over ten worked on the one day they…
Equal Pay by Sex: The Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, Part 1
This Division notice covers Part 1 of Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act: employers can't pay employees of different sexes differently for substantially similar work unless a specific, fully-expl…
Speech and Organizing Rights for Government Employees under the Protections for Public Workers Act ("PROPWA")
This Division notice, with over 30 examples, explains the free speech, advocacy, and organizing rights of Colorado state and local government employees under the Protections for Public Workers Act (PR…
Enforcement: Scope of Coverage; Notice of Rights; Protected Activity & Retaliation; Complaints & Remedies
This Division notice explains who is covered by Colorado's Agricultural Labor Rights & Responsibilities Act (which employers, employees, range workers, and other protected parties), the notice-of-righ…
Prevailing wage coverage of security/building-automation "programming" work
Clark County Purchasing and Contracts asked whether "programming" work for access-control systems, the Metasys building-automation system, and camera/video systems -- installed under the Electrician C…
Construction Industry Paid Sick Leave Requirements
This L&I administrative policy explains paid-sick-leave rules unique to construction industry employers (NAICS code 23, excluding residential building construction): construction workers employed less…
How this guidance is useful
- See how the agency reads the law: An opinion letter shows how a state labor agency actually applied wage-and-hour law to a real employer's or worker's situation.
- Check the status before relying: Every page shows whether the document is still active or has been superseded, rescinded, or withdrawn, and when that status was last verified.
- Guidance, not law: These documents explain the agency's position but bind no court, and the agency can change its view. The official document linked on every page is the authoritative source.
- Research across states: Compare how different states treat the same question, from overtime and travel time to tips and independent-contractor status.