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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Concept: Payroll Processing for FLSA (USA)

Concept: Payroll Processing for FLSA (USA)

FLSA Work Period Types
Workday enables you to select these work period types when you process payroll for the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):
FLSA Work Period Type
FLSA Worker Type
Standard 7-day Workweeks
Workers on a standard 40-hour, 7-day workweek.
14-day Workweeks
Healthcare workers on a standard 80-hour, 14-day workweek.
Public Agency Work Periods
Public safety workers, such as police and fire fighters, whose workweeks can range from 7 to 28 days. Each workweek length has a different number of hours and a different overtime threshold.
FLSA Eligibility Status
You can only process FLSA payroll for nonexempt workers.
When an exempt worker has multiple positions across all companies and pay groups, Workday determines the worker exempt when the sum of exempt scheduled hours is greater than the sum of nonexempt scheduled hours for those positions. When the exempt and nonexempt scheduled hours are equal, Workday uses the exemption status of the primary or processing position. This happens regardless if the job is in the same company or a different company.
Workday uses the exempt status for the worker effective on the pay period end date, unless there's one complete FLSA subperiod where the worker is nonexempt.
If you pay a bonus to a nonexempt worker, the bonus will allocate by workweeks. If you pay a bonus for an exempt worker, then Workday pays the bonus in 1 lump sum.
Example: The semimonthly pay period is 2021-01-01 to 2021-01-15, and these dates are the FLSA period weeks:
  1. 2020-12-27 to 2021-01-02.
  2. 2021-01-03 to 2021-01-09.
  3. 2021-01-10 to 2021-01-16.
If the worker has a job change to exempt on:
  • 2021-01-02, Workday pays the bonus in a lump sum and there's no allocation.
  • 2021-01-03 or later, Workday treats the entire period as nonexempt because the worker is nonexempt during the last day of the first FLSA subperiod. The bonus allocates over all 3 FLSA weeks.
FLSA Bonus and Retroactive Transactions
Workday doesn't support calculating these FLSA bonus payments concurrent with a retroactive transaction that targets the same FLSA period:
  • Nonregular run category (on-cycle or off-cycle) FLSA bonus with FLSA coverage dates in some situations.
  • Prior period on-demand FLSA bonus with FLSA coverage dates.
To calculate the FLSA bonus, you must either:
  • Complete the FLSA bonus before you add or calculate the retroactive transaction.
  • Complete and pull the retroactive transaction into your next on-cycle payment. Complete that on-cycle payment before you calculate the FLSA bonus transaction.
  • Use the current period for the FLSA bonus and pay it on-cycle.
  • Pay the FLSA bonus in a period without retro.
As a general rule, you can't have both payments (the FLSA bonus and the retroactive transaction targeting the same FLSA period) in progress at the same time.
Workday defers and pays all FLSA premium adjustments to the payroll result where you target retro, when:
  • You run a pay calculation for an on-demand payment or nonregular run category for an FLSA worker.
  • The bonus payment is in the same FLSA period that you're processing a retro pay calculation.
Workday will also display a:
  • Message where the adjustment is deferred, either on the
    FLSA
     or the
    Flat Sum Bonus
     tab on the payroll results.
  • Warning on the
    Reversal Pay Calculation
     task when you're about to reverse bonus run category or on-demand results where Workday has deferred premiums.