Title 28, Title 28 and Labor Relations

Any employer who or that otherwise violates any provision of this chapter or of any regulation or order issued under this chapter shall be deemed in violation of this chapter and shall upon conviction be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five hundred do…

Any person aggrieved by a violation of this chapter shall be entitled to relief as provided in chapter 14 of this title (“Payment of Wages”).

As used in this chapter: (1) “Advisory board” means a board created as provided in § 28-12-6. (2) “Commissioner” means the minimum-wage commissioner appointed by the director of labor and training as chief of the division of labor standards. (3) “Director” means the director of l…

At the written request of an employee paid less than the wage to which he or she is entitled under or by virtue of this chapter, the director of labor and training or the commissioner of minimum wage may take an assignment of the employee’s wage claim in trust for the assigning e…

Any standards relating to minimum wages, maximum hours, overtime compensation, or other working conditions in effect under any other law of this state that are more favorable to employees than those applicable to those employees under this chapter or the regulations and orders is…

Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to interfere with, impede, or in any way diminish the right of employees to bargain collectively with their employers through representatives of their own choosing in order to establish wages or other conditions of work in excess of the app…

The general assembly shall annually appropriate any sum that it deems necessary to provide for an appropriate staff for office and other necessary expenses for the administration and enforcement of this chapter; and the state controller is authorized and directed to draw his or h…

If any provision of this chapter, or its application to any person or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of the chapter and its application to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected by the invalidity.

No municipality shall establish, mandate, or otherwise require an employer to pay a minimum wage to its employees, other than the state or federal mandated minimum wage, or to apply a state or federal minimum wage law to wages statutorily exempt from a state or federal minimum wa…

(a) Every employer shall pay to each of the employer’s employees: commencing July 1, 1999, at least the minimum wage of five dollars and sixty-five cents ($5.65) per hour. Commencing September 1, 2000, the minimum wage is six dollars and fifteen cents ($6.15) per hour. (b) Commen…

Every minor, fourteen (14) and fifteen (15) years of age shall be paid at a rate of not less than seventy-five percent (75%) of the minimum wages as specified in § 28-12-3; provided, every minor who works in excess of twenty-four (24) hours in any week shall be paid for all hours…

(a) An employer who requests or permits any employee to report for duty at the beginning of a work shift and does not furnish at least three (3) hours work on that shift shall pay the employee not less than three (3) times the regular hourly rate. Provided, however, that shifts s…

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, no employer shall employ any employee for a workweek longer than forty (40) hours unless the employee is compensated at a rate of one and one-half (1½) times the regular rate at which he or she is employed for all hours worked in …

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, no employer shall employ any employee on a biweekly basis with hours worked and hourly wages averaged over that period for longer than forty (40) hours per week unless the employee is compensated at a rate of one and one-half (1½) tim…

(a) The provisions of §§ 28-12-4.1 and 28-12-4.2 do not apply to the following employees: (1) Any employee of a summer camp when it is open no more than six (6) months of the year; (2) Police officer; (3) Employees of the state or political subdivision of the state who may elect …

The director of labor and training shall by regulations define and delimit the employees designated in § 28-12-4.3. Before any regulation is adopted, amended, or repealed, there shall be a public hearing on it at which all persons in favor of or opposed to the adoption, amendment…

(a) Every employer shall pay to each of the employer’s employees who are engaged in any work or employment in which gratuities have customarily and usually constituted a part of his or her weekly income, the rate as provided by §§ 28-12-3 and 28-12-3.1. (b) Allowance for gratuiti…

(a) For any occupation for which no wage order issued pursuant to chapter 289 of the general laws of 1938, as amended, was in effect on May 2, 1956, the director of labor and training, after consultation with an advisory board appointed by him or her and composed of one represent…

(a) The director of labor and training may, from time to time, propose modifications of or additions to any administrative regulations issued pursuant to § 28-12-6, or existing on May 2, 1956, in any mandatory wage order issued under the provisions of chapter 289 of the general l…

(a) Any interested person in any occupation for which any wage order or any administrative regulation has been issued under the provisions of this chapter who may be aggrieved by any order or regulation may obtain the review of the order or regulation in the superior court for Pr…

(a) The occupier or manager of every textile factory shall post in every room where any employees work by the job, in legible writing or printing, and in sufficient numbers to be easily accessible to those employees, specifications of the character of each kind of work to be done…

Whenever used in this chapter, except where the context clearly indicates otherwise: (1) “Construction industry” means the business of constructing, reconstructing, altering, maintaining, moving, rehabilitating, repairing, renovating, or demolition of any building, structure, or …

(a) None of the sections of this chapter shall be applicable to, control, or prohibit the deduction from wages of an employee by an employer in accordance with the terms of a collective bargaining agent of a majority of the employees in a bargaining unit of employees in which the…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon written or electronic request, an employee of a state agency or any other employer may authorize a disbursing officer to make payment by sending to a financial organization designated by the employee a check or credit in the am…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon the written authorization of an employee of any state agency, the disbursing officer shall deduct from the employee’s wages and forward to the designated prepaid legal services plan that employee’s contributions, subscriptions,…

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require any employer to pay to an employee any wages or money which the employer lawfully holds as garnishee under a writ of attachment issued by any court of this state in which the employer is named as garnishee, if the garnishee ma…

(a) Every employer shall keep a true and accurate record of hours worked and wages paid each pay period to each employee in any form that may be prescribed by the director. The employer shall keep the records on file for at least three (3) years after the entry of the record. At …

The director and his or her authorized representatives shall have the right to enter any place of employment for the purpose of inspecting the employment records required by § 28-14-12 and seeing that all provisions of this chapter are complied with.

Any effort of any employer to obstruct the director and his or her authorized representatives in the performance of their duties shall be deemed a violation of this chapter and punishable as such.

The director and his or her authorized representatives shall have the power to administer oaths and examine witnesses under oath, issue subpoenas, subpoenas duces tecum, compel the attendance of witnesses, and the production of papers, books, accounts, records, payrolls, document…

In case of failure of any person to comply with any lawfully issued subpoena, or subpoena duces tecum, or on the refusal of any witness to testify to any matter regarding which he or she may be lawfully interrogated, it shall be the duty of the superior court, or any judge of tha…

(a) Except as otherwise provided for in this chapter, any employer who or that violates or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction of the misdemeanor, the employer shall be punished by a fine of not less tha…

(a) Any employer found to have violated the provisions of this chapter upon final determination by the department of labor and training, including claims settled via settlement agreement and administrative hearing, shall be assessed an administrative penalty equal to fifteen perc…

This chapter shall not be construed to diminish or impair the rights of a person under any collective bargaining agreement.

(a) The relief and damages for violations set forth in §§ 28-14-19.2 and 28-14-19.3 shall also apply to § 28-41-35(f) and (g) and chapters 3, 6, 12, and 18 of this title, chapter 23 of title 5 , and chapter 3 of title 25. (b) The director, on or before December 31, 2024, and annu…

(a) It shall be the duty of the director to ensure compliance with the provisions of this chapter and chapter 12 of this title. The director, or the director’s designee, may investigate any violations thereof, institute or cause to be instituted actions for the collection of wage…

(a) The misclassification of a worker whether performing work as a natural person, business, corporation, or entity of any kind, as an independent contractor when the worker should be considered and paid as an employee shall be considered a violation of this chapter. (b) Upon rec…

(a) Any employee or former employee, or any organization representing the employee or former employee aggrieved by the failure to pay wages and/or benefits or misclassification in violation of chapter 12 of this title and/or this chapter may file a civil action in any court of co…

No employer, or any person acting on behalf of the employer, shall discharge, threaten, or otherwise discriminate or retaliate against an employee or any other person for asserting, supporting, reporting, or participating in or being asked to participate in the investigation or d…

Every employer shall establish a regular payday on which wages shall be paid in full in lawful money of the United States, or checks on banks convertible into cash on demand at full face value. Each employee must be notified in writing, or by posted notice that may readily be see…

(a) On every regular payday, every employer shall furnish to any employee the following: (1) A statement of the hours worked by that employee during the applicable pay period; provided, that the statement need not be furnished to an employee described in § 28-12-4.3; (2) A record…

(a) Except as provided in §§ 28-14-4, 28-14-5 and subsections (b) and (c) of this section, every employee other than employees of the state and its political subdivisions and of religious, literary, or charitable corporations shall be paid weekly all due wages from his or her emp…

(a) All claims for wages may be filed with the director within three (3) years from the time of services rendered by an employee to his or her employer. (b) An aggrieved person who alleges a violation of any provision of this chapter may bring a civil action for appropriate injun…

The labor relations board shall not accept for collection the unpaid wage claim of any nonresident of this state unless the state of which that nonresident is a citizen accepts for collection the unpaid wage claims of Rhode Island residents.

It shall be mandatory upon the attorney general of this state to prosecute all civil and criminal cases which shall be referred by the director to the attorney general. It shall be the duty of the attorney general to prosecute actions, both civil and criminal, for those violation…

The director shall have the power and authority to: (1) Take assignments of wage claims and rights of action for penalties as provided by §§ 28-14-17 and 28-14-19 without being bound by any of the technical rules with reference to the validity of the assignments; (2) Prosecute ac…