Reacting to outcry from the employer community, on June 3, 2010 the Miami-Dade County (FL) County Commission amended its recently enacted wage ordinance which defined “wage theft” as failing to pay an employee any portion of his or her wages within 14 calendar days of the work having been performed. Prior to this amendment, the ordinance potentially rendered all semi-monthly pay plans unlawful with respect to covered employees. This amendment will become effective June 13th unless vetoed by the Mayor. A veto is not expected.

The revised Ordinance provides that it is lawful for an employer to pay wages either:

  1. no later than 14 calendar days from the date on which the work was performed, or
  1. pursuant to any other pay schedule that an employer has established, by policy or practice, “whereby employees earn and are consistently paid wages according to regularly recurring pay periods.”

The potential penalties for “wage theft” violations, which include back wages, liquidated damages, treble damages based on economic losses resulting from non-payment and costs and attorney’s fees, remain unchanged.

More extensive discussion and best practices guidelines regarding the new law are available here.