5 Quirky or Rare Payroll Laws Your Clients Won’t Need to Know

Anybody who handles payroll, whether it’s a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), HR outsourcer or payroll service bureaus, knows how complicated payroll can be.

There’s compliance, overtime, taxes and the list goes on. Not to mention that many PEOs support clients in states that have different rules and regulations to follow regarding payroll.

So when we see things like how California has a new $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers going into effect April 1, we take it in stride. Even when we learn that there’s a bakery clause baked in keeping bakery minimum wages at $15, we don’t blink an eye or stop chewing on our fresh-baked chocolate-chip muffin. Even when they add an exemption for restaurants in airports, hotels, event centers, museums, theme parks, etc., at the eleventh-hour, we never get dizzy from all of the roller-coasterlike regulatory updates.

Without advanced technology that can help keep your clients up to date on payroll regulations, the struggle is real. Perhaps impossible. You know that, and your clients know that. But your clients don’t have to worry about payroll regulations because they know they’ll be covered thanks to the technology and services you provide. Instead, they can worry about helping their business grow.

“PrismHR reviews the nuances of regulations across jurisdictions and industries on a daily basis,” says Chris Babigian, PrismHR’s compliance strategy manager. “Our mission is to empower service providers to accurately and efficiently tackle their own, often unique, compliance needs. To do so, we are constantly enhancing our robust toolkit and complementing this technology with comprehensive documentation and support.”

But there are many small businesses just starting out that might not realize they don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to payroll challenges.

We were curious what other quirky payroll laws are on the books, so here are a few we found.

5 Quirky or Rare Payroll Laws

Beside the upcoming bakery exception in California, here are a few others you can mention as icebreakers when talking to new potential clients.

1. Today’s the Day! California is no stranger to payroll complexities. In the Golden State, hourly workers must be paid time and half for every hour over an eight-hour shift. They must be paid double time for a 12-hour shift, and if they work seven days in a row, employees get time and half for the first eight hours of that seventh shift in a row and double time if they work more than eight hours. It is one of the only states that offers premium pay as early as the first day on the job. Good thing clients don’t have to worry about taking this news one day at a time.

2. Take a Break: The only state that requires employers to give factory workers, hotel workers, theater workers, firefighters and some other types of workers for that matter 24 hours of consecutive rest each week is New York. Puerto Rico also requires statutory rest or the employer must pay time and a half for work after 40 hours of work.

3. No Spoiled Milk: Alaska’s overtime rule has many exceptions for what it deems exempt workers, including employees who are “outside buyers of poultry, eggs, cream or milk in their raw or natural state.” We promise there are no yolks here.

4. Sweet 16: In states like Arizona and New Mexico, employees must be paid twice a month and no more than 16 days apart, with some exceptions. It’s kind of like blackjack; the employer must “hit” on 16!

5. Sometimes Civic Duty Pays: There are a handful of states, like Alabama, Connecticut and Tennessee that require employers to pay employees when they are on jury duty. This bullet point is adjourned. 

PrismHR knows that payroll can be labor-intensive and tricky. That’s why our software is designed to support clients with a wide range of needs, making it easy for PEOs to handle payroll for their clients or for clients to do so on their own if they prefer a Human Capital Management option.

Of course, your clients don’t need to know any of this because they are already on the platform, and don’t have to worry about these things. How about letting your prospects know that they won’t need to worry either?

It’s not like you’d be putting all of your eggs in one basket.

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James Tehrani is PrismHR’s digital content marketing manager. He is an award-winning writer and editor based in the Chicago area.