Labor & compliance (per location)

Where: Locations & Users → Locations → a location → Scheduling tab → Labor & compliance card.

Not legal advice. The minimum wages, overtime rules, premiums and rules packs described here are our reading of public sources. Mays helps you comply; check the official source it links for your own situation.

Labor law compliance: on and off

Labor law compliance is the part of Mays that follows the labor laws at each location's address. It's off until an admin turns it on, and it's part of your plan: when your plan doesn't include it, Settings → Organization shows Upgrade plan instead of the switch.

1. Turn it on for your organization. Go to Settings → Organization and turn on Labor law compliance. Only an admin can change it. Before anything is saved, Mays shows what will change at each location:
2. • Pay figures: the overtime and premium law that starts to apply, for example Sacramento (CA): daily overtime after 8 h, double time after 12 h, 7th-day rule, reporting pay. A state with no daily overtime shows no change.
   • Warnings and reminders: the minimum wage, food safety certificates, the paid sick leave preset and the tip rules that apply there.
   • A location outside the US shows No US rules.

Closed pay periods re-price with these rules the next time they're opened or exported. Also apply state overtime and premium law to pay figures is ticked. Untick it to turn Labor law compliance on with Overtime law and Premiums off at every location, so pay figures don't change; everything else turns on, and you can turn those two on per location later. Click Turn on to save.

2. Choose what applies at each location. On a location's Labor & compliance card, the Labor law compliance group has one switch for each feature below. Once your organization has it on, every feature is on at every location except Minors (under 18), which you turn on location by location.

• Turning a feature off. Mays asks first and says what it will stop, for example "Mays will stop applying California overtime law to pay figures at this location. Your org-wide overtime settings still apply." Nothing you entered is deleted: it's used again when you turn the switch back on.
• While it's off (for the organization, or one feature at a location), Mays works as it did before these features: overtime follows Scheduling → Settings only, premiums come only from the rules-pack toggles, and your time-off categories, including a sick category's own limits, keep working. While the organization has it off, the group on the card is one line: Labor law compliance is off, with a link to turn it on.
• Who can change the switches. Only admins. Managers see them but can't change them. Settings → Organization lists the recent changes, with who made them.
• Locations outside the US get none of these features, whatever the switches say.
• Copy to other locations… never copies the switches.

The three rules

1. Every toggle is optional and off by default. A location that has never opened this card behaves exactly as it always has. The labor law features (Minimum wage, Overtime, the law's Premiums, Paid sick leave rules per location, Food safety certificates, the Tips rules and Minors) are off until Labor law compliance is turned on (above). Once it is, the minimum wage only ever warns, the overtime law pays overtime the law requires even if your organization-wide settings don't, and the law's premiums are recorded as exceptions when punches are clocked out and costed only when Compliance fees in labor reports is on. Choosing Break rules only pre-fills suggested values into the form; nothing is stored until you press Save, and nothing is enforced until a specific toggle is on.
2. Settings are per location, not company-wide. Each location owns its own break rules, break definitions and toggles. The one organization-wide switch is Labor law compliance itself. To roll the same settings out to several stores, use Copy to other locations… — it copies this location's saved settings onto the ones you pick, replacing theirs. The minimum wage, overtime and premium rules aren't copied: each location keeps its own, from its own address, and its own overrides. Neither are the Labor law compliance switches.
3. A break or premium setting never rewrites closed pay periods. Exceptions are written when a punch is clocked out (or edited by a manager); changing a toggle changes what the next clock-out records. A closed pay period, and any export already handed to payroll, stays as it was. Overtime rules are different: like your organization-wide overtime settings, they change the overtime a pay period shows the next time you open or export it, closed ones included.

Minimum wage

While Labor law compliance's Minimum wage is on at the location, this group on the card shows the legal minimum wage at this location, which Mays reads from the location's address (its State and City on the Basic Info tab) for today in the location's time zone, for example "Legal minimum here: $14.00/hr (Florida, from Sep 30, 2026: $15.00)". Source opens the official page the figure comes from, and the line under it says when Mays last checked it.

• Dated increases apply by themselves. On the day a new rate takes effect, the location switches to it; you don't change anything. When a rate change is scheduled but the new figure hasn't been published yet, the card says so.
• Locations outside the US. Mays goes by the location's Timezone here: when it's a time zone outside the US, the card says "Legal rules here: this location isn't in the US, so no US minimum wage applies.", and Mays doesn't warn about that location's wages or send it increase reminders.
• City rates. A city with its own minimum wage (Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and others) is matched from the address's city. A county or regional rate (for example Montgomery County in Maryland, or Oregon's Portland-metro rate) can't be told from a city name, so pick it under Rate area. You can also choose the state's rate there.
• Tipped positions. Where the state or city allows a tip credit, a position marked Tipped is compared with the tipped cash wage instead, when Mays has that figure for the location. Where tip credits aren't allowed, tipped staff are compared with the full minimum wage.
• Other rates. If the law has other rates (small employers, minors, training wages, fast food), the card lists them. They aren't applied automatically.
• Use a different minimum for this location. Tick this for a special case, for example a lower tier that applies to you or a local rule Mays doesn't list. Enter the figure and a Note saying why; the card won't save an override without one. Warnings, reminders and the split-shift premium then use your figure, and the legal figure stays on the card for reference.

Where you'll see a wage below the minimum (only at locations where the Minimum wage switch is on). Mays warns you, and never blocks the save:

• when you save a position's Default wage, a person's Hourly wage, a person's wage for a position, or a punch you add on the time clock on the web, a message says which location's minimum it's below (a wage changed in the app shows up in the list below instead);
• the Position dialog and the Pay section on the person's Locations & pay tab say so while you type. The Position dialog also shows the minimum itself under Default wage: for an org-wide position, every location you can see, one line per figure (one line when they all share it), and it names the locations the wage is below;
• Scheduling → Positions shows a Wages below minimum list: position default wages, people's wages and punches from the last 14 days (each compared with the minimum on its own day) that are below the minimum, and the ones that will be below the next scheduled rate. Open next to a person's wage takes you to their Locations & pay tab;
• the schedule's labor card says how many wages are below the minimum and when the next increase is.

A wage of $0 or left blank counts as not set, and people on a weekly salary aren't checked. Someone's own Hourly wage is compared with the tipped cash wage only when every position they hold at that location is tipped.

Reminders before an increase. When the rate at a location with the Minimum wage switch on is going up and Mays has the new figure, the organization's admins get a push notification and an email 30 days and 7 days before the change, listing the positions and people below the new rate. Each reminder goes once per location and change date. Locations with the same change date share one message. A location whose own figure already meets the new rate isn't reminded.

Overtime

While Labor law compliance's Overtime law is on at the location, the Overtime group shows the overtime law at the location's address and the rules Mays pays overtime with there. While it's off, overtime there follows your organization-wide settings in Scheduling → Settings only, including their double time and 7th-day settings, and the group isn't on the card.

• The law here. One entry per level of law, for example United States (federal) and California, each in words with a Source link to the official page and the day Mays last checked it.
• What pay uses here. Each location pays the more protective of your organization-wide overtime settings (Scheduling → Settings) and the law at its address, rule by rule: the lower threshold and the higher multiplier, and the 7th-day rule if either has it. A location never pays less than your organization-wide settings did. Each line says where it comes from. For example, a California location shows Over 8 h a day at 1.5× — the law here, Over 12 h a day at 2× (double time) and 7th day of a week worked every day: the first 8 h at 1.5×, the rest at 2×. A Florida location shows only the weekly rule, unless you set daily overtime organization-wide; then it keeps it.
• The 7th day. When someone works on every one of the 7 days of your payroll week, the 7th day is paid at the premium rate. California pays the first 8 hours at 1.5× and the rest at 2×. Kentucky pays 1.5× for the whole day. Hours paid a premium on the 7th day don't count again toward weekly overtime, and an hour is never paid two overtime rates.
• Nevada. Daily overtime applies only to people whose regular rate is under 1.5 × the minimum wage (under $18.00/hr while the minimum is $12.00). Mays checks each person's rate for the week.
• Not applied. Rules Mays can't apply are listed with Not applied and the source, for example Connecticut's restaurant 7th-day rule. So is a state rule that reaches only employers the federal Fair Labor Standards Act doesn't cover, such as Kansas's overtime after 46 hours a week or New Hampshire's after 40: Mays can't tell whether the FLSA covers you, so it pays the federal rule, overtime after 40 hours. So are conditions in the law that Mays can't see, such as small-employer or sales exemptions and agreed 4×10 schedules. Check the official source. If an exemption applies to you, set this location's own rules.
• Workdays. A shift or punch counts toward the day it starts, in the location's time zone.
• Locations outside the US. When the location's Timezone is outside the US, the group says "Overtime law here: this location isn't in the US, so no US overtime law applies. Your org-wide overtime settings apply." Overtime there follows your organization-wide settings only.

Use different overtime rules for this location. For a special case, for example an exemption that applies to you, a California alternative workweek or a union contract. The form starts from what the location pays today. Set the weekly, daily and double-time thresholds and multipliers and the 7th-day rule, and add a Note saying why; the card won't save without one. These rules replace both your organization-wide settings and the law at this location. If they pay less than the law here, the card says so while you type (These rules pay less than the law here. You can still save.) and again when you save. The law stays on the card for reference.

Where overtime shows up. The same rules price every labor figure at the location: the pay summary and the payroll exports, each punch's regular and overtime hours on the time card, the schedule's labor cost for each shift, row and week, the labor card's OT warnings (daily, double-time and 7th-day overtime too, not only weekly), the Scheduled Hours & Wages, Worked Hours & Wages and Variance reports, and Insights' labor cost. Worked Hours & Wages shows the same wages as the pay summary for the same days.

Changing these settings changes the overtime Mays shows the next time you open a pay period or an export, closed ones included, as other overtime settings always have. Export and keep your files before you change them.

Premiums

The Premiums group shows the extra pay some states require on top of wages — spread of hours, split shift and reporting (call-in) pay — at the location's address, and what Mays records there. The law's premiums and the location's own premium rules apply only while Labor law compliance's Premiums is on at the location. The rules-pack toggles in the table below work either way; while the Minimum wage switch is off, the pack's split-shift hour is paid at the figure you enter under Split shift (rules pack), or the pack's statewide minimum wage.

• The law here. Each rule the location's state sets, in words, with a Source link to the official page and the day Mays last checked it. Under each rule Mays applies, the card quotes the official text it comes from.
• What Mays applies here. While Premiums is on, these apply at the location with no other setting:
• • New York — spread of hours. When someone's workday spans more than 10 hours from their first clock-in to their last clock-out (breaks and time off between shifts included), they get 1 extra hour at the minimum wage ($17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, $16.00 in the rest of the state in 2026), whatever their pay rate. New York's restaurant rules have no separate split-shift premium: a split shift counts only when it makes the day longer than 10 hours.
  • New York — call-in pay. Someone who reports for work is paid for at least 3 hours for one shift that day, 6 for two and 8 for three. The hours they didn't work are paid at the minimum wage.
  • District of Columbia — split shift. When the unpaid time between someone's work periods on one day adds up to more than an hour, they get 1 extra hour at the DC minimum wage. Minimum daily wage: at least 4 hours a day, the hours not worked at the minimum wage.
  • Reporting pay in other states: California (less than half the scheduled day worked → paid for half of it, 2 to 4 hours, at the regular rate), Connecticut (2 hours at the minimum rate), Massachusetts (3 hours at the minimum wage, for someone scheduled for 3 hours or more), New Hampshire (2 hours at the regular rate), New Jersey (1 hour at the regular rate), Rhode Island (3 hours for each shift at the regular rate) and Oregon (people under 18 only: half their scheduled shift, at least 1 hour, at the regular rate; Mays reads the birth date on their profile).
• Not applied — check the official source. Under each rule, the card lists the conditions in the law that Mays can't see, for example a regularly scheduled shorter shift in New York or DC, notice given the day before in Connecticut, or an employee who lives on the premises in DC. If one applies, dismiss the exception with a reason, or set this location's own rules. California's split-shift rule isn't applied from the law, because pay above the minimum wage counts toward it; turn on Split shift (rules pack) to record it.
• Workdays. A punch counts toward the day it starts, in the location's time zone, and Mays measures the time that actually passed, so a day across a daylight-saving change counts its real length.
• Locations outside the US. When the location's Timezone is outside the US, the group says "Premium law here: this location isn't in the US, so no US spread-of-hours, split-shift or reporting-pay law applies." Only the toggles below and this location's own rules apply there.

Use different premium rules for this location. For a special case, for example an exemption that applies to you or a union contract. Set the spread-of-hours threshold, the split-shift gap, the reporting-pay hours and what the hours not worked are paid at (leave a box blank for none), and add a Note saying why; the card won't save without one. These rules replace the law and the pack toggles at this location. If they pay less than the law here, the card says so while you type (These rules pay less than the law here. You can still save.) and again when you save. The law stays on the card for reference.

Where premiums show up.

• Time Clock → a pay period → Exceptions: one row per premium (Spread of hours, Split shift, Reporting pay), recorded when a punch is clocked out or a manager edits one.
• Labor Summary: a column for each (Split Shift Hrs, Spread Hrs, Reporting Pay Hrs). The pay-period export has Split Shift Premium Hours and Reporting Pay Hours, and Spread of Hours Premium Hours right after Compliance Fees (the tip columns come after it when a location uses them). Gusto's sheet has no column for these premiums, so add them in Gusto yourself.
• The schedule: before you publish, the review before publishing list gets a PREMIUM row when someone's day creates a spread of hours or a split shift, with what it costs, for example "Ava Chen's day on Tue, Sep 22 spans 11 h (9am–8pm): New York's spread-of-hours rule adds 1 hour at the $17.00 minimum wage (+$17.00)." It warns and never blocks publishing. The schedule's labor cost doesn't include premiums.

Tips: service charges, card fees and tip declarations

These live on the Tip pool card, on the same Scheduling tab, while Labor law compliance's Tips is on at the location. Mays reads the rules from the location's address, like the minimum wage, and links each one to its official source. It warns and never blocks a setting. While it's off, the card has no card-fee setting (a percentage you saved before is kept but not deducted), no service-charge rules and no Tips-column warning, and no tip declarations go out; the card surcharge still goes in the wage column you pick.

• Service charges. A mandatory charge, such as a card surcharge, an automatic gratuity or a service charge, isn't a tip: what you pay staff from it is wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15, IRS Rev. Rul. 2012-18). The card shows the state's own service-charge rule where Mays has one (New York and Massachusetts, for example), with a checklist of what it asks you to do: pay the charge to the staff, or tell customers in writing that it isn't a tip. Where Mays has no state rule, the card says to check the official source. City and county ordinances aren't tracked.
• The card surcharge in the Gusto export. The distributed card surcharge goes in a wage column: Distributed service charges (the default, which needs that custom earning in Gusto) or Bonus. The Tips column is still there for money customers choose freely, with a warning, because a mandatory charge reported as tips misstates wages.
• Card processing fees. Deduct the card processing fee from card tips is off by default. When you turn it on, enter your processor's percentage: Mays takes that percentage of the card tips from your POS, rounded down, and splits it in proportion to each person's card tips. It never takes more than the fee, and it never touches tips entered on time punches. Where the state bans it (California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania), the card shows a red warning. Where the state allows it, the card explains the rule. Where Mays has no clear answer, it says to check the official source. The deduction shows on the pay period's Tips tab and in both exports.
• Tip declarations. In Wisconsin, each tipped employee confirms their tips at the end of every pay period in the Mays app. See Tip declarations.

Minors (under 18)

Off by default. Turn on Minors (under 18) in the card's Labor law compliance group (an admin, with Labor law compliance on for your organization) to have Mays check the hours and times of anyone under 18 at this location against federal law and, in California, Florida, New York and Texas, the state's own limits. Pick the School calendar the limits use, or keep the default. With it on, the schedule warns about shifts that break a limit, and the auto-scheduler never puts a minor on one. Nothing is blocked. The group also lists the rules checked with their official sources, who on the schedule is a minor, who has no date of birth, and who turns 14, 16 or 18 in the next 30 days. A location outside the US doesn't get these rules. See Scheduling minors.

Break rules

Break rules sets suggested meal- and rest-break rules and break premiums for the location. It doesn't choose the location's law: the minimum wage, overtime, premiums, paid sick leave, certificates, tip rules and the rules for minors come from the location's address while Labor law compliance is on.

Selecting California break rules on a card that is still at its defaults pre-fills the suggestion; on a card you have already changed it only switches the break rules. Discard puts the saved values back.

The choice is offered at California locations. A location in another state shows No break-rules pack for Texas yet. (with its own state's name), and a location outside the US shows No US break rules. A location outside California that already uses California break rules keeps the choice, with the note This location isn't in California., so you can switch it back to None.

Breaks

Custom breaks — named breaks (name, meal or rest, paid, length, the shift length they apply to, enforced). The app and the kiosk offer them on shifts longer than their qualifying length; a break taken as one of them is stored with its kind, so exception tracking knows which rule it satisfied. The California suggestion adds a 30-min unpaid meal break for shifts over 5 h and a 10-min paid rest break for shifts of 3.5 h or more, both not enforced.

Which break is which — a break started from an older app (before break kinds) is read as the meal when it is unpaid and as a rest break when it is paid; exception tracking classifies any break without a kind by its length and paid flag (30+ min unpaid = meal). A plain Start break at a location with no custom breaks is decided by its length when it ends: under 20 minutes it is a paid rest break (short rest breaks count as hours worked under federal law), 20 minutes or more an unpaid meal break.

Advanced

Who sees pay: the Labor Summary tab and both pay-period exports list every employee's wage and pay, so they need the Build & manage native schedule permission — managers and admins have it by default. Someone whose role can only view the schedule doesn't see the Labor Summary tab or the Export button.

Exceptions tab (Time Clock → a pay period)

Every exception the rules produced for the period, one row each: the employee, the rule (1st meal break · 30 min, Split shift, Spread of hours, Reporting pay), its status (Missed / Late / Short / Waived), what happened (not taken · due by 2pm, 20 min taken at 1:10pm, 120 min unpaid gap · 12pm – 2pm, 11.5 h spread · 10am – 9:30pm, worked 1.5 h of 6.0 h scheduled · paid for at least 3.0 h), the premium (1.00 h @ regular rate, 1.00 h @ $17.00 min wage), the employee's attestation, and the review actions:

• Dismiss (with a required reason) — removes the premium from the labor totals until reverted; the row shows Dismissed by <name>.
• Revert — undoes a dismissal, including an automatic one.
• CSV — the same rows for payroll or an auditor.

Filters: rule, status (incl. Open / Dismissed), employee. A manager's punch edit re-evaluates the workday; rows a manager dismissed by hand are kept.

Paid sick leave

Paid sick leave isn't set on this card. It lives with the other time-off categories in Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual (admins only):

• A category marked This is paid sick / safe leave (a category called Sick or Safe is marked for you) earns hours for everyone who works hours at the location, managers included, from their approved punches.
• Under it, while Labor law compliance's Paid sick leave is on at the location picked in the sidebar, Paid sick leave law at that location shows that state's and city's rules: the accrual rate, yearly limits, the balance limit, carryover, the waiting period for new hires and front-loading, each with a link to the official page it comes from. Where we don't have a figure yet it says Not in our data yet: check the official source.
• Apply these rules fills them in for that location. You can change any value; Mays warns you when one is below the law's minimum but still lets you save.
• Mays then stops accrual at the yearly limit, trims the balance to the carryover limit when the year starts, and refuses sick time a new hire asks for inside the waiting period (counted from the Hire date on the Employment tab of their page).
• While Paid sick leave is off at a location, its own rules aren't used there: the category's own limits (carryover, the yearly limits and the waiting period in the category's row) apply, as they do at every location without its own rules.

Mays helps you comply with paid sick leave laws, but it isn't legal advice: where a law differs by employer size, the figures shown are the ones for the largest employers, so check the official page for yours.

The California pack

Each rule below links to the official source it comes from.

Sources: <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=512>, <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=226.7>, <https://www.dir.ca.gov/iwc/wageorderindustries.htm>, <https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_mealperiods.htm>, <https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_restperiods.htm>, <https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm>, <https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2026/2026-66.html>, <https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=510>, <https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_overtime.htm>.

How the deadline is read: "no later than the end of the 5th hour" includes the 5-hour mark itself — a meal break that begins exactly 5:00 into the shift is on time; 5:01 is late.