Country Selector
Last updated on: March 20th, 2024
Hours & Pay Regulations
Normal Working Hours
Hours worked in excess of 40 per week are to be paid at time and one-half the worker’s regular rate of pay.
Labor performed in any manufacturing establishment, and all mechanical labor, during the period of ten (10) hours in any one day, shall be considered a legal day’s work, unless otherwise agreed by the parties to the contract for the labor.
Work Hours for Minor Workers
-
- For 16-17 year old – Work should not begin before 6:00 am or later than 11:30 pm (if no classes are scheduled on the following day, minors may be employed until 1:30 am) If the minor is not a student, there is no curfew. Maximum hours in Rhode Island are 9 hours per day (9 3/5 hours per day in a 5-day work week), 48 hours per week.
- For 14-15-year-old – Work should not begin before 6:00 am or later than 7:00 pm (except 9:00 pm during school vacations).
Shift Work
An employer in any industry who requests or permits any employee to report for duty at the beginning of a work shift and three (3) hours work is not furnished on that shift, the employer must pay the employee for three (3) hours work at the employee’s regular rate of pay. In the event that an employee reports for work at the beginning of a work shift and the employer offers no work to perform the employer must still pay the employee for three (3) hours at the employee’s regular rate of pay.
Show Up and Reporting Time – Rhode Island minimum wage laws require employers to pay employees for a minimum of three hours at their regular hourly rate if the employer requests or permits such employees to report or show up for duty but does not furnish the employee with a minimum of three hours of work on that shift.
Employers must pay employees who report to work a minimum of three hours at their regular rate regardless of whether the employees perform some work or perform no work at all.
Maximum Length for Uneven Shift Patterns – An employer who requests or permits any employee to report for duty at the beginning of a work shift and does not furnish at least 3 hours of work on that shift shall pay the employee not less than 3 times the regular hourly rate. Provided, however, that shifts scheduled for less than 3 hours are permissible when entered into voluntarily and agreed upon by both the employer and employee.
If an employee reports for duty at the beginning of a work shift and the employer offers no work for him or her to perform, the employer shall pay the employee not less than 3 times the regular hourly rate or the amount they would have earned for any shifts consisting of less than 3 hours.
Recording Requirements – An employer must keep an accurate daily and weekly (time in and out) record for all employees. No one, including employees paid on a salary basis, is exempt from this law. These records, along with payroll records, must be kept for at least three years
Overtime
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.
Employees paid bi-weekly must be compensated at time and one-half the employee’s regular rate for all hours worked beyond 40 in any one workweek.
Any employee of a summer camp opens no more than six months of the year, police officers, firefighters and rescue service personnel employed by the cities and towns, employees of the state or political subdivisions of the state who elect through collective bargaining or other agreement or understanding to receive compensatory time off equal to 1.5 times the hours worked over 40.
Employees employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act receiving a salary of at least $200 per week (the salary divided by the number of hours worked must not violate the applicable minimum wage), salaried employee of a nonprofit national voluntary health agency who may elect compensatory time off for the hours worked in excess of 40.
Employees including drivers, driver’s helpers, mechanics, and loaders of any motor carrier, including private carriers, with respect to whom the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has the power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service; employee employed as a salesperson or parts person or mechanic primarily engaged in the sale and/or servicing of automobiles, trucks or farm implements and is employed by a non-manufacturing employer primarily engaged in the business of selling vehicles or farm implements, provided that the earnings exceed an amount equal to the employee’s basis contractual hourly rate of pay, times the number of hours actually worked, plus the employee’s basic contractual hourly rate of pay, 1.5 times the number of hours actually worked in excess of 40 hours per week.
Provided, however, in any workweek in which an employee of a retail business is employed on a Sunday and/or holiday at a rate of one and one-half (1 1/2) times the regular rate at which he or she is employed as provided in Section 5-23-2 the hours worked on such Sunday and/or holiday shall be excluded from the calculation of overtime pay as required.
Breaks
Employees must be allowed a 20-minute meal break within a six-hour work shift, and a 30-minute meal break within an eight-hour work shift. Employers are not required to compensate employees for their meal breaks. The meal break requirement does not apply to employers that are licensed healthcare facilities or that employ less than three persons on any shift at the worksite.
Rhode Island does not have a rest breaks law that applies generally to private employers. However, certain private employers are covered by applicable federal law governing rest breaks.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-13.2-1 (2003) specifies that an employer may provide reasonable unpaid break time each day to an employee who needs to breastfeed or express breast milk for her infant child. The law requires the department of health to issue periodic reports on breastfeeding rates, complaints received and benefits reported by both working breastfeeding mothers and employers and provide definitions.
Work On Rest Days
Work performed on Sundays must be paid at the rate of time and one-half. Employees cannot be discharged or penalized for refusing to work on any Sunday, unless they are employed by a manufacturer which operates for seven (7) continuous days per week.
Sunday Work
Work performed by employees on Sundays and holidays must be paid for at least one and one-half times the normal rate of pay for the work performed. Rhode Island law permits employees to refuse to work on Sundays.
Any manufacturer of wall-covering products which operates for seven (7) continuous days per week, twenty-four (24) hours per day, is exempt from the requirement that the work is voluntary on Sundays provided, that the manufacturer increases employment by at least ten percent (10%), within one year of its conversion to continuous operation from the non-continuous operation.
Any manufacturer that operates three (3) shifts, or begins its work week on Sundays, may begin the shift or start the work week at 11:00 P.M. on Sunday and not be required to pay its employees one and one-half times the normal rate of pay during the one hour period between 11:00 P.M. Sunday and 12 midnight.
Any and all employees of a chauffeur-driven limousine or taxicab company that operates seven (7) continuous days per week, twenty-four (24) hours per day are exempt from the payment of 1.5 times the rate if working on Sundays.
Public Holidays
-
-
- New Year’s Day — January 1
- Memorial Day — Last Monday in May
- Independence Day — July 4
- Victory Day — Second Monday in August
- Labor Day — First Monday in September
- Columbus Day — Second Monday in October
- Veterans Day — November 11
- Thanksgiving Day — Fourth Thursday in November
- Christmas Day — December 25
-
Work performed on Sundays and holidays must be paid at the rate of time and one-half. Employees cannot be discharged or penalized for refusing to work on any Sunday or holiday unless they are employed by a manufacturer that operates for seven (7) continuous days per week. If you work in non-retail, the hours in excess of forty are to be paid at time and one half, the holiday is to be paid at time and one half and the remainder is to be paid straight time. If you work in retail, the holiday hours are extracted first and paid at time and one half. If there are hours over 40 in the balance, these hours are to be paid at time and one-half also.
If a holiday falls on a Sunday, the day following is observed as the legal holiday.
Annual Leave
Whenever an employee is separated from the payroll of an employer, after completing at least one (1) year of service, any vacation pay accrued by collective bargaining, company policy or other agreement between employer and employee shall become wages and payable in full or on a prorated basis with all other due wages on the next regular payday for the employee.
Special Leave
Rhode Island Parental and Family Medical Leave Act requires that employers of 50 or more employees grant an unpaid leave of absence, upon the request of an eligible employee, for 13 consecutive weeks in any two calendar years, under certain conditions. Employees Eligible Employees are eligible to apply for leave if they are full-time employees who work an average of 30 hours a week or more and have been employed continuously for at least 12 months. The leave required to be provided under the Act must be for one or more of the following reasons:
-
-
- Birth of a child of an employee; and/or
- Placement of a child 16 years of age or less with an employee in connection with the adoption of such child by the employees; and/or
- ‘Serious illness’ of the employee or the employee’s parent, spouse, child, mother-in-law, or father-in-law.
-
In order to be entitled to the leave, the employee must give at least 30 days’ notice of the intended date upon which the requested leave is to commence and terminate unless prevented by a medical emergency from doing so. Employees may be requested to provide a written certification from a physician caring for the person who is the reason for the leave request, which certification shall specify the probable duration of the requested leave.
Temporary Caregiver Insurance
The Temporary Caregiver Insurance Program (TCI) is Rhode Island’s paid family leave program which gives 4 weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption, or fostering of a new child or to care for a family member with a serious health condition; and up to 30 weeks of paid leave for a worker’s own disability.
An employee who has been employed for 12 consecutive months is entitled to 10 hours of leave during any 12 month period to attend school conferences or other school-related activities for a child of whom the employee is the parent, foster parent, or guardian. A notice of 24 hours prior to the leave must be given to the employer by the employee. The leave is not required to be paid; except an employee may substitute any accrued paid vacation leave or other appropriate paid leave.
Any employer who allows sick time or sick leave of an employee to be used after the birth of a child shall allow the same time to be used for the placement of a child 16 years of age or less with an employee in connection with the adoption of the child by the employee.
Under the law, a covered employer must provide an employee with time off to recover from childbirth if requested by the employee. The amount of time off that would be considered reasonable is not specified under the law. However, an employer may not require a pregnant employee to take leave if another reasonable accommodation can be provided.
No employer doing business within the state of Rhode Island or otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of the state of Rhode Island shall cause any of its employees to suffer the loss of the employee’s position, wage increases, promotions, longevity benefit, or any other emolument due to the employer-employee relationship because the employee has been called to serve jury duty; provided, however, that no employer, in the absence of a contract or collective bargaining agreement to the contrary, shall be responsible to pay to the employee any compensation for the period of the jury duty.
In addition to USERRA, Rhode Island provides job protections to members of the state military forces, National Guard, and U.S. military reserves. Military members must be provided unpaid leave for military service or training. An employee who requests reinstatement within 40 days after completing military duties must be restored to his or her previous position (or a position of the same status, pay, and seniority).
Any employer, that employs between fifteen (15) and fifty (50) employees shall provide up to fifteen (15) days of unpaid family military leave to an employee during the time federal or state orders are in effect, in accordance with the provisions set forth in this section. Family military leave granted under this act may consist of unpaid leave.
Any employer, that employs more than fifty (50) employees shall provide up to thirty (30) days of unpaid family military leave to an employee during the time federal or state orders are in effect, in accordance with the provisions set forth in this section. Family military leave granted under this act may consist of unpaid leave.
The employee shall give at least fourteen (14) days notice of the intended date upon which family military leave will commence if the leave will consist of five (5) or more consecutive workdays. Where able, the employee shall consult with the employer to schedule the leave to not unduly disrupt the operations of the employer. Employees taking military family leaves for less than five (5) consecutive days shall give the employer advance notice as is practicable. The employer may require certification from the proper military authority to verify the employee’s eligibility to take the requested family military leave.
An employee shall not take leave as provided under this act unless he or she has exhausted all accrued vacation leave, personal leave, compensatory leave or time, and any other leave that may be granted to the employee, with the exception of sick leave and disability leave.
Duration of Sick Leave – Employees must earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 35 hours worked, up to the annual maximum.
Eligibility Criteria- Employers with 18 or more employees must provide paid sick leave. Employers with fewer than 18 employees must provide unpaid sick leave to employees.
Usage of Sick Leave: Employees may use paid (or unpaid) sick leave for:
-
-
- An employee’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; an employee’s need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; an employee’s need for preventive medical care; or
- Care of a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; care of a family member who needs medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; care of a family member who needs preventive medical care; or
- Closure of the employee’s place of business by order of a public official due to a public health emergency
- Care for an employee’s need to care for a child whose school or place of care has been closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency.
- Care for oneself or a family member when it has been determined by the health authorities having jurisdiction or by a health care provider that the employee’s or family member’s presence in the community may jeopardize the health of others because of their exposure to a communicable disease, whether or not the employee or family member has actually contracted the communicable disease; or
- Time off needed when the employee or a member of the employee’s family is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
-
Employers that have paid leave policies providing (at a minimum) the annual amount of leave required under the law and allowing employees to use leave for the same purposes are not required to comply with the law’s accrual and carryover requirements.
Notification Requirement – Employers may require that employees who use 3 or more consecutive days of paid sick leave provide reasonable documentation that their absence was for a covered purpose. Employers must notify employees in advance, in writing, of the requirement to provide this reasonable documentation.
Accrual of Sick Leave– Annual maximum paid sick leave accruals will be up to 40 hours during each calendar year.
Employees must be permitted to carry over accrued, but unused paid sick leave to the next calendar year. Employers may avoid tracking accruals by front-loading the full amount of paid sick leave at the start of each year.
