Georgia Employment Law

Employees working in Georgia are subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Normal working hours shall not exceed more than 40 hours a week. The Fair Labor Standards Act defines the workweek as a fixed and recurring period of 168 hours comprised of 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.

• • Name;
  • Social Security Number;
  • State or states in which the services are performed; and if any of such services are performed outside this state and are not incidental to the service within the state, the employee’s base of operations and the employee’s residence (by state);
  • The date on which the individual was hired, rehired, or returned to work after a temporary layoff, and date separated from work and the reason therefor;
  • Remuneration paid for services and date of payment, showing separately:
  • Amounts paid to the individual as allowance of reimbursement for traveling or other business expenses, dates of payment, amounts of payment, and amounts of such expenditures actually incurred and accounted for by the individual.

Any work performed beyond  40 hours in a work week is considered overtime work.

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.

Hours worked ordinarily include all the time during which an employee is required to be on the employer’s premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace. There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years of age or older may work in any workweek. 

Employers are not legally required to provide breaks or meal periods to their employees under either the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or Georgia 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: 1) the break is longer than 20 minutes; and 2) the employee is relieved of all work during the break. No Penalty for Missing Break as per law.