FLSA in Wisconsin: Wages, Overtime, and Child Labor Rules

Wisconsin workers are covered by both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and a separate layer of Wisconsin wage-and-hour rules enforced by the Department of Workforce Development’s Equal Rights Division.¹ When the two overlap, the standard more favorable to the employee controls. Your employer can’t pick whichever law is cheaper to follow: the higher wage, the shorter permitted hours for minors, and the broader overtime coverage all win.

Minimum Wage

Wisconsin’s minimum wage matches the federal floor at $7.25 per hour for adult employees, unchanged since 2009. Tipped employees (servers, bartenders, and anyone regularly receiving more than $30 per month in tips) can be paid a direct cash wage of $2.33 per hour, with the employer taking a tip credit of up to $4.92. If your tips plus that $2.33 don’t average at least $7.25 over the pay period, the employer must make up the difference.²

Workers under 20 can be paid an opportunity wage of $5.90 per hour for their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job. After that 90-day window closes, or when the employee turns 20 (whichever comes first), the standard $7.25 rate applies.²

Overtime Pay

Under Wisconsin Administrative Code DWD 274, employers must pay one and one-half times the regular hourly rate for all hours over 40 in a workweek.³ The FLSA uses the same 40-hour weekly threshold.⁴ Neither uses a daily trigger. A 12-hour Tuesday generates no overtime if the total week stays under 40. Your employer defines when the workweek starts and ends; it just has to be a consistent 168-hour period.

The overtime rate is built from all regular compensation, not just base pay. Non-discretionary bonuses and commissions earned during the workweek fold into the regular rate before the 1.5 multiplier. If you earn $15 an hour, your overtime rate is at least $22.50, but a $200 production bonus that week raises the effective regular rate and the overtime premium along with it. This calculation is one of the more common places employers get things wrong.

The overtime obligation applies even when your employer didn’t approve the extra hours in advance. An employer can discipline you for unauthorized overtime, but they still have to pay for it.⁵

No Comp Time in the Private Sector

Under the FLSA, only state and local government employers can offer compensatory time off in place of overtime pay.⁴ If you work for a private employer in Wisconsin, you’re owed cash for every overtime hour. Your boss can’t ask you to take Friday off next week instead and call it even. Even offering you the choice between comp time and cash overtime violates the law.

Who’s Exempt from Overtime

Not every salaried employee is exempt. The exemption depends on what you actually do and what you earn; job title alone doesn’t decide it. Wisconsin’s exemption framework in DWD 274 tracks the FLSA’s white-collar exemptions for executive, administrative, and professional employees, and Wisconsin’s rules are read consistently with the federal ones.³

The Salary Test

The federal Department of Labor enforces a minimum salary of $684 per week ($35,568 per year) for the white-collar exemptions.⁶ Wisconsin’s own code sets a lower floor of $700 per month for executives, but the higher federal amount controls for employers subject to the FLSA, which is most Wisconsin businesses.³ Highly compensated employees earning at least $107,432 per year face a less demanding duties test.

The Duties Test

Clearing the salary bar is only half the analysis. Each category has its own duties requirements:⁷

Executive employees have management as their primary duty, regularly direct at least two full-time workers, and have real authority (or serious influence) over hiring and firing.
Administrative employees perform office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations and exercise independent judgment on significant matters. This is the exemption most often misapplied; important work isn’t enough unless it involves genuine discretion about how the business runs.
Professional employees do work requiring advanced knowledge in a specialized field, usually a degree in science, law, medicine, engineering, or the like. Creative professionals whose work requires invention or imagination also qualify.

Outside sales employees are exempt regardless of salary if they regularly work away from the employer’s place of business and their primary duty is making sales or obtaining orders.⁸

Meal and Rest Breaks

Adults in Wisconsin have no legal right to a meal or rest break. If you’re 18 or older, your employer can schedule a full shift with no break at all.⁹ The FLSA doesn’t require breaks either.¹⁰

When breaks are offered, the pay rules depend on length. Short breaks of less than 30 minutes count as paid work time. Breaks of 30 minutes or longer can be unpaid, but only if you’re completely relieved of your duties and free to leave the premises. If your boss expects you to answer the phone or stay at your workstation during a 30-minute lunch, that break is paid time. This distinction matters for overtime totals: unpaid breaks improperly deducted can push you over 40 hours without the overtime pay you’re owed.

Workers under 18 do get protection. Wisconsin requires a 30-minute duty-free meal period for every six consecutive hours worked by a minor. Shorter breaks are optional, but must be paid if offered.⁹

Child Labor Limits

Wisconsin and federal law both restrict work by anyone under 18, and employers must follow whichever rule is stricter. The state framework lives in Wisconsin Administrative Code DWD 270.

Ages 14 and 15

Wisconsin allows 14 and 15-year-olds to work up to 4 hours on most school days, up to 8 hours on the last school day of the week, and up to 18 hours during a school week.¹¹ Federal FLSA rules cap this age group at 3 hours on any school day and 18 hours in a school week, which is more restrictive.¹² So the federal 3-hour school-day limit controls. In non-school weeks, both laws allow up to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.

Ages 16 and 17

Older minors get more room but still face caps. During school weeks, 16 and 17-year-olds can work up to 5 hours on most school days and 26 hours total for the week. In non-school weeks, Wisconsin allows up to 50 hours, but the employer must pay time and a half for all hours over 10 in a day or over 40 in a week, whichever produces the greater amount.¹¹

Hazardous Work and Penalties

Federal law lists 17 categories of hazardous occupations closed to anyone under 18, including explosives, commercial driving, forklifts and power-driven hoisting equipment, meat-processing and bakery machines, and mining.¹² Wisconsin’s own list of prohibited occupations under DWD 270 generally overlaps with the federal restrictions.

Wisconsin no longer requires work permits for 16 and 17-year-olds, but employers must maintain proof of age for every minor employee. A first offense can result in forfeitures of $25 to $1,000 per day; a second offense within five years jumps to $250 to $5,000 per day, with up to 30 days in jail possible. An employer who violates hour or time-of-day limits also owes the minor double their regular pay for every hour worked in violation.¹³

Paychecks and Final Pay

Wisconsin employers must pay at least monthly, with wages paid no more than 31 days after they’re earned.¹⁴ Biweekly and semimonthly schedules satisfy this. If you miss a payday because you were absent, you can demand your wages and the employer has six days to pay.

Wisconsin does not accelerate the deadline when employment ends. Whether you quit, are laid off, or are fired, your final paycheck is due on the employer’s next regular payday for the period in which you last worked. If it never shows up, you have two years from the date the wages were due to file a complaint or sue.¹⁵

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Federal and Wisconsin law both bar employers from punishing employees who raise wage complaints. Under the FLSA, it’s illegal to fire, demote, cut hours, or otherwise retaliate against someone who files a complaint, participates in an investigation, or discusses potential violations with coworkers. That protection covers both formal complaints to the Department of Labor and internal complaints to a manager. A retaliating employer can be ordered to reinstate you and pay lost wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.¹⁶

Wisconsin adds its own layer through the Fair Employment Law, making it unlawful to retaliate against an employee trying to enforce state wage and overtime rights. Retaliation complaints go to the Equal Rights Division.¹⁷

Filing a Wage Complaint

If your employer owes you wages, whether from unpaid hours, missing overtime, or a skipped paycheck, you can file with the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division.

What to Gather First

Pull together your employer’s full legal name and physical business address, your employment dates, and the specific hours you worked. Pay stubs, time cards, and any written agreements about pay rate, commissions, or bonuses all strengthen the claim. You’ll need to state the total gross wages owed (before taxes, not take-home). The Division compares your numbers against the employer’s payroll records, so precision helps.

How to File

The official form is the Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS-119-E), available through the Department of Workforce Development.¹⁸ You can submit it online or mail it to the Equal Rights Division offices in Madison or Milwaukee.¹⁹ The Division notifies the employer, requests an explanation or proof of payment, and reviews both sides’ evidence. Many cases move through a mediation phase. If mediation fails, the Division issues a determination on the back pay owed.

Deadlines

Wisconsin sets a two-year statute of limitations on wage claims, running from the date the wages were due.¹⁵ FLSA claims carry the same two years for standard violations, but the federal deadline extends to three years if the violation was willful, meaning the employer knew it was breaking the law or showed reckless disregard for it.²⁰ Every pay period that slips past the two-year mark is gone for good, so filing sooner preserves the maximum recoverable back pay.

1
Department of Workforce Development. Labor Standards
2
Department of Workforce Development. Minimum Wage
3
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code DWD 274
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours
5
Department of Workforce Development. Wisconsin Hours of Work and Overtime FAQ
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, and Professional Employees
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
9
Department of Workforce Development. Breaks and Meals
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Breaks and Meal Periods
11
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code DWD 270.11 – Hours of Labor of Minors
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
13
Department of Workforce Development. Wisconsin Employment of Minors Guide
14
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 109.03(1)
15
Department of Workforce Development. Wage Payment and Collection Law
16
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
17
Department of Workforce Development. Retaliation Protection
18
Department of Workforce Development. Labor Standards Complaint Process
19
Legal Information Institute. Wisconsin Administrative Code DWD 226.06 – Complaints
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations