Employee salary laws in Arizona offer people who work for the state’s employers labor law rights and benefits in areas such as minimum wage, overtime and paycheck distribution protections. The laws that are interpreted and enforced by staff members at the Industrial Commission of Arizona cover part-time and full-time employees.

Minimum Wage

The lowest salary employees can receive in Arizona is $7.35 an hour as of May 2011. This hourly wage is 10 cents higher than the federal minimum wage rate. Workers who regularly make independent decisions that impact the profits, losses, products, services and employee base of organizations they are employed at have a minimum wage rate of $455 a week according to Fair Labor Standards Act laws. These employees are classified as administrative, professional or executive; they are exempt from overtime pay. If they are classified as administrative, they generally perform high-level support functions for organizations, while professional salaried employees require complex knowledge and often also postsecondary degrees and licenses to perform their jobs. Executives are generally senior managers. Examples of these salaried workers are chief executive officers, human resource directors and attorneys.

Exemptions

Employers in the state that do not generate at least $500,000 in annual revenues are exempt from paying their employees the state’s minimum wage rate. However, if employers engage in interstate business, they must pay their salaried employees the state’s minimum wage rate, even if they annual revenues do not reach $500,000.

Overtime Pay

Except for administrative, executive and professional salaried employees, other workers in Arizona must receive overtime pay after they work more than 40 hours during a seven-day period. Overtime is not required after employees work eight hours a day, as Arizona’s overtime laws are not based on the number of hours salaried employees work during a day. The overtime rate in Arizona is 1 1/2 times employees’ standard wages. Therefore, employees with standard hourly wages of $40 must receive $60 for all time they work above 40 hours a week. Employees who feel they were not paid overtime they worked and are legally due can file a complaint with the Industrial Commission of Arizona.

Full-Day Wages

Salaried employees who must legally receive overtime pay do not have to get paid for hours they do not work. However, FLSA laws do mandate that employees who are exempt from receiving overtime pay (such as administrators, executives and professionals) get paid a full day’s wage even if they do not work all day. For example, if a CEO works half a day on Monday, she must receive a full day’s wages. Employers can deduct wages from these salaried employees’ paychecks if they do not work all week.

Time Off

Although employers who operate in the private sector are not required to pay their salaried employees vacation time, state government employers must pay salaried workers 10 vacation days a year, according to the Arizona Human Resources Division. Arizona’s state government employers must also pay their salaried employees if they take sick days. The maximum numbers of sick days employees are required to get paid for each year are 12.