Nebraska Labor Law Breaks
Nebraska mandates that each 8-hour shift must include a half-hour lunch break taken off-site. Assembly plants, workshops, and mechanical facilities must comply with Nebraska’s meal break statute unless the workers are covered by a legal collective bargaining contract or other written agreement between the employer and employee that specifies meal breaks.
Nebraska Payment Laws
All wages to be paid are based on the amount of time an employee works. This is regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act and requires that employees be paid for all of the time they work. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act employees are to be paid for any time they are doing work. For instance, if an employee’s job is to deliver items for a company, he or she is to be paid while commuting from one place to the other. His or her employer is also required to pay him or her during the eight hours provided, even if he or she has no deliveries to make.
Under this regulation, if an employee is offered forty hours in one week, he or she is to be paid those forty hours if he or she is at work, even if no work is provided. However, if this employee is to wait off company premises for deliveries, he or she is not required to be paid for the waiting time.
An employee is also required to be paid if he or she works overtime. Some companies do not allow overtime, but if an employee is required to work past his or her forty hours while completing a deadline, he or she is required to be paid.
Family and Medical Leave
By federal law employers are required to allow employees to take a leave of absence for family or medical reasons. This kind of leave is covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The Family and Medical Leave Act allow employees to take a needed absence without the fear of looking at their employment. Under the act, employers are not legally permitted to terminate an employee because he or she took personal leave.
An employer has the right to hire a temporary employee to handle the employee on leave’s responsibilities but is required to terminate that employee when the employee on leave returns. Upon return, an employee is entitled to his or her former occupation or occupation of the same benefits and salary.
Family and medical leave is allotted for twelve weeks each year and must be taken consecutively. These twelve weeks cannot be spread throughout the year. The Family and Medical Leave Act covers the circumstances of maternity leave, leave to care for an elderly parent, leave to care for an ill child, leave for hospitalization, or leave for any other extended medical or psychological purpose. Maternity leave includes caring for a newborn and allowing adoptive parents to care for a new child. Paternity leave may also be available in some cases.
Minimum Wages
In 2009 the federal government raised its minimum wage standard to seven dollars and twenty-five cents. This required all states to raise their minimum wages to meet this standard or rise above it. The state of Nebraska thus raised its minimum wage to meet federal law. Under federal law employees who are tipped are allowed to be paid just over two dollars an hour. This is legal as the tips acquired to make up the difference for the lack of wages.