MANAGING RISK: WAGE AND HOUR LAWS What Restaurant and Lodging Businesses Need to Know
O
pening a new restaurant or lodging property during a booming economy is no walk in the park. Opening a restaurant or lodging business (or reopening a hotel or restaurant) at the tail end of a global pandemic can be even more complicated, like making the perfect chocolate lava cake (“It’s molten!”). To navigate the legal minefield ahead, new restaurant and lodging property owners and senior managers should keep the following wage and hour laws on the front burner.
MINIMUM WAGE AND OVERTIME
Generally, federal and state law requires that employers: • pay employees at least Oregon’s minimum wage, with few exceptions; • pay overtime at the rate of 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in the workweek; and • maintain records with accurate information about every employee’s hours worked and wages earned.
Oregon's minimum wage depends on work location. As of July 1, 2022, the minimum wage is: • $12.50 per hour in non-urban areas (e.g., Baker, Coos, Curry, and Douglas Counties); • $13.50 per hour in standard areas (e.g., Benton, Deschutes, Lane, and Marion Counties, and parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties outside of the urban growth boundary); and • $14.75 per hour in the Portland metro area (within the urban growth boundary, including parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties). Oregon law requires that the minimum wage be the same for adults and for minors. To be clear, some restaurant and lodging employees—e.g., general managers, assistant managers, and executive chefs—may be exempt from these minimum wage and overtime requirements. But most restaurant and lodging employees will be entitled to earn (1) a minimum wage for every hour worked and (2) overtime for hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. Tipped Employees While the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows restaurants to use a payment system known as “tip credit,” this payment system is illegal in Oregon. ORS 653.035(3). Tips cannot be counted against an employee’s hourly pay. Restaurants, however, can require employees to pool tips with other workers. MEALS AND BREAKS
There are a number of requirements for meals and breaks. Here are some of the basics: • For each eight-hour work period, an employee gets the following breaks free from work responsibilities: (1) two 10-minute paid rest breaks, and (2) one 30-minute unpaid meal break. • Employees get reasonable breaks as needed to express milk (and a private space that is not a bathroom to pump) until a child is 18 months old. Employers are required to make reasonable efforts to provide a private location where the employee can express milk. • These are the minimum requirements, and an employer can give its employees longer breaks.
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Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association | SUMMER 2022
