In this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires: 1. "Commissioner" means the labor commissioner. 2. "Employee" includes any individual employed by an employer. However, an individual is not an "employee" while engaged in a ridesharing arrangement, as defined in section 8-02-07. The term does not include a person engaged in firefighting or sworn law enforcement officers for a political subdivision of the state. 3. "Employer" includes any individual, partnership, association, corporation, limited liability company, the state and political subdivisions of the state, or any person or group of persons acting in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee. 4. "Minor" means a person of either sex under the age of eighteen years. 5. "Occupation" means a business or industry, or a trade or branch thereof, but it does not include outside salesmen who are compensated on a commission basis. 6. "Wages" includes all payments made to or on behalf of an employee as remuneration for employment, whether calculated on a time, piece, job, or incentive basis.
34-06-02. Power to investigate conditions of labor and wages and hours of employees. The commissioner has the power to: 1. Investigate and ascertain the wages and the hours and conditions of labor of employees in the different occupations in which they are employed within this state. 2. Inspect and examine, either in person or through authorized representative, all books, payrolls, and other records of any employer of employees appertaining to or bearing on the questions of hours or conditions of labor of any employee employed by such employer. 3. Require from any employer of employees a full and true statement of the wages paid to, and the hours and conditions of labor of, all employees in the employer's employ.