Frequently Asked Questions

No. FLSA §3(m)(2)(B) bars employers, managers, and supervisors from receiving employees’ tips through a pool, whether or not a tip credit is taken. For this rule, a manager or supervisor must satisfy the executive duties criteria in 29 CFR 541.100(a)(2)–(4); title or occasional supervision alone does not establish that status. DOL letters FLSA2025-1 and FLSA2026-13 apply that duties test. A manager may keep a tip given directly for service the manager directly and solely provided. See tip pooling.

It depends on actual duties and the applicable state rule. Federally, assess whether management is the captain’s primary duty, whether the captain customarily and regularly directs two full-time employees or their equivalent, and whether hiring or firing authority or recommendations carry particular weight. Assigning work or evaluating staff is relevant but does not alone complete that test. New York separately excludes employees with meaningful authority over subordinates under Barenboim v. Starbucks. Document the analysis for each captain; an otherwise eligible captain must also qualify for the particular pool. See tip pooling and exemptions.

Under federal law, no — a mandatory charge is a service charge, and any portion paid to staff is wages, not tips. State law is where the danger lives: New York presumes a banquet service charge is a gratuity owed to service staff unless contracts and bills clearly disclose otherwise in writing (12 NYCRR 146-2.18), California's O'Grady decision can reach the same result based on guest-facing presentation, and the LA, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Long Beach hotel ordinances require pass-through to the workers who performed the service. Service charges also never count as qualified tips for the OBBBA deduction. See service charges.

Federally, yes — but only the pro rata share of the actual fee (a 3% processing fee means passing through 97% of the tip), the employee must still receive minimum wage, and tips must be paid by the next regular payday. Several states prohibit it outright: California (tips are the employee's property under Labor Code §351), Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania (banned by 2022 regulation). Multistate operators usually disable the deduction everywhere rather than maintain per-state configurations. See tip pooling.

There is no current federal 20% or 30-minute limit. The Fifth Circuit vacated the 2021 rule in Restaurant Law Center (August 23, 2024; superseding opinion October 29), and DOL restored the occupation-based dual-jobs text in December 2024. State limits still matter: New York denies the entire day’s credit at two hours or more, or more than 20% of the shift in non-tipped work. Colorado retains state 20% and 30-minute limits. Connecticut separately restricts non-service work at two hours or more, or more than 20% of the shift, requires segregation and records, and does not allow the restaurant credit while the restaurant is closed to patrons. Track the activities needed to apply each governing rule. See tip credit and the state guides.

No. Labor Code §351 makes gratuities the sole property of the employee — every hotel worker must receive the full state or local minimum wage in cash before tips, credit-card fees may not be deducted from tips, and the rule applies in every California city. Mandatory tip pooling is still allowed among employees in the chain of service, with owners, managers, and supervisors excluded. See California and tip credit.

Since July 1, 2026, Chicago’s minimum wage for covered employers with four or more employees is $17.05 and its tipped cash floor is $12.96. The May 20, 2026 ordinance holds the cash percentage at 76% through June 2028; the dollar floor still follows annual minimum-wage adjustments. For employers with 21+ employees, cash rises to 84% in July 2028, 92% in July 2029, and 100% in July 2030. For employers with 4–20 employees, it stays at 76% through June 2030, then rises to 84%, 88%, 94%, and 100% each July from 2030 through 2033. Chicago Fair Workweek coverage has separate employer and earnings tests. See Illinois and scheduling.

Since July 1, 2026, DC’s full minimum wage is $18.40 and its tipped cash floor is $10.30, reflecting the amended 56% cash-wage schedule. The percentage rises to 60% in July 2028, 65% in 2030, 70% in 2032, and 75% in 2034; the enacted schedule retains a 25% credit thereafter. An otherwise valid credit is limited to tips actually received, so the employer must make up any workweek shortfall in cash. A notice, retention, or pool violation raises a separate credit-validity issue. See tip credit and District of Columbia.

The housekeeper's. A voluntary gratuity left for a specific employee or group is their property; the hotel may run a valid tip pool among customarily-tipped staff but may never retain any part of it, and managers and supervisors stay out (FLSA section 3(m)(2)(B); California Labor Code section 351). A room attendant who regularly receives such tips may be a "tipped employee" for that work — and housekeepers are TTOC 304, so those voluntary tips can qualify for the OBBBA deduction. See tip pooling.

A mandatory charge — the automatic 20% on large parties, a standard banquet service charge — is a service charge, not a tip, under IRS Rev. Rul. 2012-18: amounts paid to staff are wages (regular withholding, and they enter the regular rate for overtime), they do not generate the section 45B FICA tip credit, and they are not "qualified tips" for the OBBBA deduction. Only a voluntary, customer-determined amount is a tip. Segregate the two in the POS so payroll and the W-2 codes come out right. See service charges and tip tax and payroll.

Only if every part of FLSA §7(i) fits. The retail-or-service establishment requirement must be met, the regular rate must exceed 1.5 times the federal §6 minimum wage in each overtime week—currently more than $10.875—and more than half the compensation over a representative period of one month to one year must be commissions. DOL FLSA2026-4 explains the federal threshold and treatment of tips. Higher state or local minimum wages still must be paid, and a separate state overtime exemption must apply where state law requires one. California’s wage-order commission exemption does not generally cover hotels under Wage Order 5. See exemptions.

Yes. Distributed service charges are remuneration that goes into the regular rate, so overtime must be computed on the loaded rate, not the base hourly wage. A server with a $1,200 service-charge distribution in a 50-hour banquet week has a much higher regular rate — and a much higher overtime premium — than the base rate suggests. Paying 1.5× the base wage alone systematically underpays every overtime hour. Run scenarios in the regular rate calculator and see overtime and the regular rate.

Assuming a valid $5.12 credit, no other regular-rate additions, and the federal $7.25 floor, cash overtime is (1.5 × $7.25) − $5.12 = $5.755 per hour, displayed as $5.76. Keep the unrounded rate through the calculation and round the final payable amount to cents. A 46-hour week requires $119.73 in employer cash before any tip shortfall. Multiplying the $2.13 cash wage by 1.5 underpays overtime. Higher state or local rates and bonuses or distributed service charges change the calculation. Use the tipped overtime calculator.

The fluctuating workweek (FWW) method pays a salaried non-exempt employee a fixed salary for all hours plus a half-time premium on overtime hours — but it requires a clear mutual understanding, hours that genuinely fluctuate, and a salary that always yields at least minimum wage, and it does not make anyone exempt. Several states (California, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Alaska) reject or restrict it. For a banquet manager whose duties fail the executive test, FWW is a way to pay overtime more cheaply, not a way to avoid it. See overtime and the regular rate and exemptions.

Federally, blend them: the week's regular rate is the weighted average of all straight-time earnings divided by all hours worked, and overtime is half that average for each hour over 40. A server who works banquets at $18 and the cafe at $15 has a single blended rate that week — paying overtime at whichever rate the OT hour happened to fall in is wrong. (An alternative under section 7(g)(2) lets you pay OT at the rate of the job worked during the overtime hours, but only by agreement reached before the work.) Check it in the regular rate calculator.

No. The OBBBA deduction covers only the FLSA-required premium — the extra half-time for hours over 40 in a week. Overtime owed only because of state daily rules (California's over-8 and over-12 premiums), contractual or CBA premiums above the FLSA floor, and any overtime paid to exempt employees do not qualify and should not be reported in W-2 Box 12 code TT. Separate FLSA-premium tracking is the payroll build that makes code TT correct. See tip tax and payroll.

Almost certainly not. The administrative exemption requires office work directly related to management or general business operations plus discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance — running the night audit, posting charges, balancing folios, and covering the desk under brand procedures is the hotel's production work, not its administration. Paying a salary at or above $684/week does not by itself make anyone exempt. Pay the overtime; reclassification back pay is far cheaper before a collective action than after. Test the role in the exemption checker.

If the hotels jointly employ the housekeeper, combine the hours into one workweek: 25 hours at each property means 50 hours and ordinarily 10 overtime hours. Common ownership is relevant but does not by itself settle joint employment. Examine the relationship between the employers, shared or coordinated staffing and supervision, and the controlling federal and state tests. Separate EINs, payrolls, or time systems do not avoid aggregation when employment is joint. See joint employer.

Very possibly, at least jointly, while they work your function under your supervision. The vertical joint-employment analysis asks whether the worker is economically dependent on the client hotel — and a platform worker on your premises, in your uniform standard, directed by your banquet captain, checks most boxes. If the hotel is a joint employer, it shares liability for minimum wage and overtime during those shifts regardless of what the platform's terms say; an indemnity clause shifts money, not liability. Vet the platform's W-2 practices and audit hours and pay. See joint employer and independent contractors.

Brand standards, inspections, training materials, and a reservation system do not by themselves establish joint employment. Actual control, economic realities, and the governing circuit and state tests matter; a franchise agreement does not decide the question. DOL published a proposed joint-employment rule on April 23, 2026. A proposal does not replace controlling law. Analyze who actually hires, supervises, schedules, and controls pay. See joint employer.

Federal: $684/week ($35,568/year), with the highly compensated employee threshold at $107,432 — the 2019 levels, formally restored by DOL in May 2026 after the 2024 rule's $844/$1,128 figures were vacated. State floors for 2026: California $1,352/week ($70,304); New York $1,275/week downstate and $1,199.10 upstate (executive/administrative); Washington $1,541.70/week ($80,168.40); Colorado $1,111.23/week ($57,784). Salary alone is never enough — the duties test still has to pass. See exemptions.

A flat event or day rate alone does not satisfy the executive salary-basis requirement merely because annual earnings are high (Helix Energy v. Hewitt). A day-, hourly-, or shift-rate arrangement can qualify under §541.604(b) with the required weekly guarantee and a reasonable relationship to usual earnings. Any alternative professional fee-basis theory has its own requirements. The applicable salary level and duties tests must also pass; cooking alongside staff does not by itself decide whether management remains the primary duty. Use the exemption checker.

The title and salary do not decide it. The federal executive test requires management as the primary duty, customary direction of two full-time employees or their equivalent, and hiring/firing authority or recommendations given particular weight. Time spent at the desk is relevant, but federal law allows concurrent exempt and nonexempt duties and has no automatic majority-time bar. California separately requires more than half of work time on exempt duties. Document the actual authority, responsibility, discretion, and time allocation under each applicable test. See exemptions.

Under federal law, ordinary post-shift security screening can be noncompensable under Integrity Staffing v. Busk; being required by the employer is not enough to make it integral and indispensable. Time between the first and last principal activities is generally within the continuous workday, but an activity after the last principal activity is not automatically paid on that ground. California’s control test can require pay for mandatory exit searches and inspection queues (Frlekin; Huerta). Evaluate the actual procedure and governing wage order. See off-the-clock work.

Federally, yes — if the rounding is neutral in policy and practice (29 CFR 785.48(b)) — but modern systems that capture exact minutes make the practice hard to defend anywhere. In California, don't round: meal-period punches may never be rounded (Donohue v. AMN), the court of appeal in Camp v. Home Depot held that an employer that can and does capture exact time must pay it, and the California Supreme Court took review in 2023 without issuing any published decision since. Pay to the minute; it is correct under every plausible outcome. See off-the-clock work.

California generally requires reporting-time pay when an employee reports but receives less than half the usual or scheduled day: total reporting-time protection is half that day, at least two and at most four hours, subject to the wage-order exceptions. An eight-hour call cut after one worked hour ordinarily requires three additional reporting-time hours. New York hospitality call-in protection is three hours for one shift, six for two totaling six or less, and eight for three totaling eight or less, or the shorter regularly scheduled shift; use the wage order’s rule for variable schedules. Fair-workweek protections may add separate cancellation pay. See scheduling.

Yes — one extra hour at minimum wage for each day an employee works a split schedule, such as an AM/PM banquet double or a breakfast-and-dinner restaurant shift. The premium is offset by wages earned above the minimum wage for the day, so it mostly bites employees paid at or near the applicable minimum. New York has a different but related rule: an extra hour of spread-of-hours pay when the workday spans more than 10 hours. See scheduling.

Usually, yes. Whenever the workday spans more than 10 hours from first start to last end — including the unpaid gap in a split shift — New York's hospitality wage order owes one extra hour at the basic minimum wage ($17.00 downstate, $16.00 upstate in 2026). Section 146-1.6 applies in restaurants and all-year hotels regardless of the employee’s regular pay rate; resort hotels require the separate applicable rule. Split schedules can trigger the premium when the spread falls within the same workday. A short overnight rest gap is not by itself a ten-hour spread in one workday. See scheduling and New York.

Usually yes. Training time is compensable unless all four conditions are met: it is outside normal hours, voluntary, not directly related to the current job, and no productive work is performed (29 CFR 785.27). Mandatory brand-standard modules, harassment-prevention courses, POS rollouts, and new-hire orientation are work time — as is travel to off-site mandatory training during the workday. "Optional" training that is realistically expected counts too. See off-the-clock work.

If the properties are joint employers — common where ownership or management overlaps — the hours combine into one workweek, and overtime is owed once total hours exceed 40, jointly and severally by both entities. Time spent traveling between the two properties during the workday is generally compensable. Separate EINs and payrolls do not defeat aggregation; designate one system of record and reconcile the combined hours weekly. See joint employer.

Yes. Labor Law §191 requires weekly pay within seven days for "manual workers," and NYSDOL treats anyone spending more than 25% of their time on physical labor as one — housekeepers, porters, and most banquet staff qualify. A May 2025 amendment took the sting out of first violations: if you paid at least semi-monthly on a regular payday, damages are limited to lost interest rather than 100% liquidated damages. But weekly pay remains the legal rule, and employers with 1,000+ New York employees can apply to NYSDOL for semi-monthly authorization. See New York.

Federal regulations (29 CFR 516.28) require identifying each tipped employee, the tips they reported (weekly or monthly), the tip credit claimed per hour, and hours and earnings split between tipped and non-tipped occupations. Add the tip-credit notice itself — written and signed everywhere as best practice, mandatory in writing in New York — plus tip-pool contribution and distribution records. Keep them with payroll records for at least three years. See recordkeeping.

Federal minimums: three years for payroll records and two years for the records they are computed from — time cards, schedules, and work tickets. States run longer: New York requires six years, and California employers should keep at least four to cover the UCL look-back period. When records are missing, courts let employees estimate their own hours (Mt. Clemens burden-shifting), so the cheapest defense exhibit you will ever buy is a complete time record. See recordkeeping.

California requires earned wages, including accrued vacation, immediately on discharge. A worker who quits with at least 72 hours’ notice ordinarily must be paid at quitting; without that notice, payment is generally due within 72 hours. Willful nonpayment can trigger up to 30 days of waiting-time penalties. Massachusetts requires payment on discharge and mandatory treble damages for lost wages under its Wage Act. Other states have distinct termination and resignation deadlines. Check the applicable rule before processing the separation. See recordkeeping.

Rarely — and never from tips or below minimum wage. Federally, deductions for cash shortages, breakage, or walkouts are unlawful if they bring the employee below minimum wage or cut into overtime pay, and they can never come out of tips. Many states (California foremost) bar them almost entirely absent proof of the employee's dishonest or willful act. Treat register and breakage losses as a cost of doing business, not a payroll deduction. See minimum wage and deductions.

The law provides an employee income-tax deduction, subject to eligibility and phaseouts, of up to $25,000 annually for 2025–2028. Tips remain reportable wages for employment-tax purposes; FICA still applies. Use the employee’s applicable Form W-4 and withholding instructions, which now permit employees to account for the deduction. For 2026 wages, report total cash tips reported by the employee in W-2 Box 12 code TP, including qualifying charged and pooled tips, and provide the required Treasury Tipped Occupation Code in Box 14b. TP is not limited to the amount the employee can ultimately deduct. Keep compulsory service charges separate. See tip tax and payroll.

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks are on Treasury’s final tipped-occupation list as TTOC 303; bellhops, concierges, and housekeepers have codes 301, 302, and 304. Listed occupation status satisfies one requirement, not every condition for the deduction. The tips must qualify under the statute and regulations, and income phaseouts, taxpayer eligibility, reporting, and business restrictions still apply. Mandatory service-charge distributions do not become qualified tips. See tip tax and payroll.

For 2026, Box 12 code TP reports total cash tips reported to the employer, not merely the employee’s deductible qualified-tip amount. Cash tips include charged and shared tips under the reporting rules. Code TT reports qualified overtime compensation—the FLSA-required premium portion, not all time-and-a-half pay. Box 14b supplies the required three-digit Treasury Tipped Occupation Code when TP is reported. Follow the current W-2 instructions for multiple occupations and separate voluntary tips from mandatory service charges. See tip tax and payroll.

The §45B credit provides an income-tax credit for the employer-side FICA paid on reported tips above those used to satisfy the minimum wage — historically food and beverage only, computed against a frozen $5.15 base. OBBBA extended it to specified beauty services, including qualifying body and spa treatments, effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024, using a $7.25 base for the beauty-services portion. A hotel spa with W-2 massage therapists and estheticians reporting charged tips should be claiming it on Form 8846 — and can look at the retroactive 2025 year. See tip tax and payroll.

A food or beverage operation where tipping is customary and food or beverages are consumed on the premises generally meets the large-establishment test when the employer normally has more than ten employee equivalents: combined work exceeds 80 hours on a typical business day under the instructions. Apply that test across the employer’s food and beverage operations, then file separately for each qualifying establishment. If reported tips fall below 8% of allocable receipts, or an IRS-approved lower rate, allocate the difference under the prescribed method. Allocated tips go in W-2 Box 8; do not withhold payroll taxes on those allocations. See tip tax and payroll.

Yes. The IRS may assess the employer's share of FICA on underreported tips using an aggregate estimate of charged tips (United States v. Fior d'Italia), through a section 3121(q) Notice and Demand — and the bill can arrive years later, computed against the house. A voluntary tip-reporting agreement (TRAC, or GITCA for gaming operations) and disciplined monthly reporting under section 6053 are the practical defenses. See tip tax and payroll.

The 2024 reforms generally govern actions brought on or after June 19, 2024, except those based on earlier notices. Standing ordinarily requires personally suffering each alleged violation within the statutory period, subject to the nonprofit legal-aid exception. Qualifying reasonable compliance steps can limit penalties to 15% before the triggering notice or records request, or 30% after timely action within 60 days of notice. These are conditional caps with aggravated-violation and judicial exceptions—not automatic protection from an audit alone. Cure, limits on derivative penalty stacking, and early evaluation provide additional routes; qualifying cure plus reasonable steps can eliminate a penalty. The employee share is 35%. See PAGA and class actions.

For most hotel employers, yes. Epic Systems makes class and collective waivers enforceable, and under Viking River and Adolph v. Uber a PAGA plaintiff's individual claims go to arbitration while the non-individual claims persist in court. The open question is Leeper v. Shipt, pending before the California Supreme Court, on whether "headless" PAGA filings can sidestep arbitration entirely — a decision worth watching before redrafting. Keep agreements current, with clean severability and carve-outs. See PAGA and class actions.

Federally, two years — or three if the violation was "willful," meaning you knew or showed reckless disregard for whether the classification was lawful (McLaughlin v. Richland Shoe). The third year adds roughly 50% to the back pay, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages unless you prove good faith. States reach further: California's UCL allows a four-year restitution lookback and New York six years. Reclassify and pay promptly — the lookback only grows while the error sits. See recordkeeping and PAGA and class actions.

Do not assume a general release extinguishes FLSA wages. Brooklyn Savings Bank rejects waiver of undisputed statutory wages or liquidated damages. The Eleventh Circuit’s Lynn’s Food rule requires DOL supervision or court approval for compromise of FLSA wage claims; O’Neal v. American Shaman (2026) continues to apply that rule while distinguishing non-FLSA claims. Other circuits differ: the Fifth Circuit recognizes a limited exception for a bona fide dispute over hours or compensation, explained in Bodle v. TXL Mortgage. Check the governing circuit and state law. A §216(c) waiver requires acceptance and full payment of the supervised wages and covers the specified claims, not every possible claim in the period. See PAGA and class actions.

Under 29 USC §260, the employer must establish both subjective good faith and objectively reasonable grounds; the court then has discretion to reduce or deny liquidated damages. Contemporaneous policies, a sound pay analysis, qualifying guidance, and prompt correction can support that proof but do not automatically establish it. Section 259 separately requires good-faith conformity with and reliance on a qualifying written administrative interpretation or other specified agency action. An informal assurance or a loosely related document is not enough. See DOL guidance.

DOL’s PAID program can address eligible FLSA minimum-wage and overtime issues and certain FMLA violations. It allows supervised correction without liquidated damages or civil money penalties, subject to its current eligibility criteria; existing litigation or investigation of the same practices can disqualify the matter. Employees choose whether to accept, releases cover the specified violations, and other state or federal claims remain subject to their own law. In California, timely correction and documented reasonable compliance steps can support PAGA caps or cure relief, but the statutory conditions and exceptions must be met. See PAGA and class actions.

Yes, with guardrails. Per-room pay is a piece rate: you must still track all hours worked, confirm each workweek that piece earnings divided by hours meet the highest applicable minimum wage, and pay overtime on the piece-rate regular rate. In California, Labor Code §226.2 also requires separately paying rest/recovery periods at the average hourly rate and nonproductive time (waiting for assignments, traveling between floors) at no less than minimum wage. Hotel workload ordinances layer premium pay on top. See housekeeper pay.

Apply each city’s own rule. Los Angeles generally uses 4,000 square feet at hotels with 45–59 rooms and 3,500 at 60 or more rooms, with special-room and assignment adjustments; exceeding the applicable cap requires double pay for the covered workday. Santa Monica uses 3,500 square feet at 40+ rooms and 4,000 below, with its own adjustments and whole-day premium. Seattle covers hotels with 100+ rooms: its 4,500-square-foot eight-hour maximum is reduced for shorter shifts and strenuous work, and permitted work beyond the maximum requires three times the normal hourly rate for the actual cleaning time beyond that maximum. Do not apply Seattle’s rate to all cleaning hours or infer excess time from square footage alone. The first class action under Long Beach’s housekeeper law settled for $2.25 million in 2025. See hotel ordinances and housekeeper pay.

The July 1, 2026 rates are now in effect. Covered Los Angeles hotels with 60+ rooms pay $25.00/hour, with a $4.25 hourly health-benefit requirement. Actual benefit contributions are not required on overtime hours. When paid as a cash wage instead, the additional hourly wage applies to worked hours and enters the regular rate; a partial benefit contribution requires the applicable cash shortfall. Santa Monica’s hotel wage is $25.00 and Glendale follows the applicable Los Angeles hotel wage. Long Beach hotels with 100+ rooms pay $26.50 under Measure RW. West Hollywood’s hotel wage is $20.87; Los Angeles’s general city minimum is $18.42. Coverage and health-benefit rules differ by city. See hotel ordinances and California.

Yes. Ordinance 188944 sets $25.00 from July 1, 2026, $25.50 from July 1, 2027, $28.50 from July 1, 2028, $29.00 from July 1, 2029, and $30.00 from January 1, 2030. The hourly health-benefit amount is $4.25 from July 2026 and $6.00 from July 2027. Distinguish benefit contributions, which are not required on overtime hours, from the additional cash wage required when benefits are not provided or are insufficient. See hotel ordinances.

In a growing list of places, yes. Statewide laws cover New Jersey (hotels 100+ rooms), Washington (phased in 2020–2021), and Illinois (all hotels and casinos); local laws include Chicago, Seattle (60+ rooms), Los Angeles, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Oakland, Anaheim, and Irvine; New York City's Safe Hotels Act folds requirements into hotel licensing; and union contracts add more. Even where no law applies, panic buttons have become the industry standard the plaintiffs' bar and AHLA's own 5-Star Promise both point to. See hotel ordinances.

New York City’s hotel licensing law requires front-desk coverage, security coverage at large hotels, daily room cleaning unless the guest declines, panic devices, and human-trafficking training. Covered core employees generally must be directly employed, but the law includes exceptions, including hotels with fewer than 100 rooms, specified existing contracts, and qualifying collective-bargaining provisions. It restricts short-duration bookings and creates enforcement and anti-retaliation protections. Apply the statutory definitions and exceptions to the actual property. See hotel ordinances.

No. Hazardous Occupations Order 10 bars anyone under 18 from operating, feeding, setting up, adjusting, or cleaning power-driven meat-processing machines, and DOL applies it to the deli slicer in your grab-and-go market or employee cafeteria. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds can hold plenty of hotel jobs, but the slicer, the dough mixer, and the trash compactor are off limits, with civil money penalties assessed per violation. See minors.

Federal §3(m) permits qualifying lodging at reasonable cost or fair value without profit, subject to voluntary acceptance, employee benefit, and records. State restrictions also apply. California requires a written agreement and wage-order caps. Washington does not count in-kind lodging as minimum wages, but separately permits qualifying advance written rent deductions for the employee’s benefit. For H-2B workers, prohibit undisclosed or unauthorized deductions and employer-benefit kickbacks; disclosed, otherwise lawful board, lodging, statutory, and voluntary third-party deductions remain governed by §655.20(c) and Part 531. See seasonal resorts.

Required presence needs a fact-specific hours-worked analysis. Under federal §785.22, a shift of 24 hours or more may exclude an agreed sleep period of up to eight hours only when adequate quarters and the sleep conditions are met; interruptions are paid, and inability to obtain at least five hours of sleep makes the entire sleep period work. Section 785.23 separately addresses employees living on the premises permanently or for extended periods. California Mendiola addresses Wage Order 4; hotels generally fall under Wage Order 5, which has its own required-resident definition tied to assigned duties. Do not import one rule into every hotel arrangement. See off-the-clock work.

H-2B workers must be paid at least the prevailing wage stated in the DOL labor certification (frequently above the statutory minimum), every deduction must be disclosed in the job order and may not pull pay below the required wage, and the employer must effectively reimburse inbound travel and visa costs in the first workweek to the extent they would bring pay below the minimum. The FLSA and any stricter state wage law apply on top. See seasonal resorts.

The FLSA sets no general hours limit for 16- and 17-year-olds, but hazardous-occupation orders restrict particular machinery and tasks. Meat slicers are prohibited; compactors and balers have narrow loading exceptions, and some mixers have specific exceptions. The rule is not a ban on every powered machine. States may impose stricter night, school-day, daily, and weekly limits. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds have additional federal hours and occupation limits. Verify the worker’s age, exact task and equipment, and applicable state rule. See minors.