New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 12 - LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT › Chapter 56 - WAGE AND HOUR › Subchapter 2 - DEFINITIONS › Section 12:56-2.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Act" means the New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law, 34:11-56a et seq.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development or his or her designee.
"Covered employee" means an employee subject to this chapter.
"Division of Wage and Hour Compliance" means Division of Wage and Hour Compliance of Labor Standards and Safety Enforcement of the New Jersey State Department of Labor and Workforce Development, PO Box 389, Trenton, N.J. 08625-0389.
"Employ" means to suffer or permit to work.
"Employee" includes any individual employed by an employer, except:
1. For trainees who are involved in a program in which:
i. The training is for the primary benefit of the trainee;
ii. The employment for which the trainee is training requires some cognizable trainable skill;
iii. The training is not specific to the employer, that is, is not exclusive to its needs, but may be applicable elsewhere for another employer or in another field of endeavor;
iv. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which may be given in a vocational school;
v. The trainee does not displace a regular employee on a regular job or supplement a regular job, but trains under close tutorial observation;
vi. The employer derives no immediate benefit from the efforts of the trainee and, indeed, on occasion may find his or her regular operation impeded by the trainee;
vii. The trainee is not necessarily entitled to a job at the completion of training;
viii. The training program is sponsored by the employer, is outside regular work hours, the employee does no productive work while attending and the program is not directly related to the employee's present job (as distinguished from learning another job or additional skill); and
ix. The employer and the trainee share a basic understanding that regular employment wages are not due for the time spent in training, provided that the trainee does not perform any productive work.
2. If a trainee does not meet all of the above-listed criteria, the trainee shall be considered to be an employee.
"Employer" includes any individual, partnership, association, corporation, and the State and any county, municipality, or school district in the State, or any agency, authority, department, bureau, or instrumentality thereof, or any person, or group of persons, acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee.
"Established employer on-the-job or other training program" means an existing on-the-job or other training program that, when completed by the employee, either results in the employee earning an industry-valued credential or results in the employee being awarded credit that may be directly applied toward the earning of an industry-valued credential.
"Fair wage" means a wage fairly and reasonably commensurate with the value of the service or class of service rendered and sufficient to meet the minimum cost of living necessary for health.
"N.J.A.C." means the New Jersey Administrative Code.
"N.J.S.A." means the New Jersey Statutes Annotated.
"Occupation" means any occupation, service, trade, business, industry, or branch or group of industries or employment or class of employment in which employees are gainfully employed.
"Oppressive and unreasonable wage" means a wage which is both less than the fair and reasonable value of the service rendered and less than sufficient to meet the minimum cost of living necessary for health.
"Patient" means a person, such as an alcoholic or drug addict receiving inconsequential payments in a program administered by an organized and generally recognized charity.
"Premium pay" means a sum of money or bonus paid in addition to the regular price, salary or other amount.
"Regular hourly wage" means the amount that an employee is regularly paid for each hour of work as determined by dividing total hours of work during the week into the employee's total earnings for the week, exclusive of overtime premium pay.
"Seasonal employment" means employment during a year by an employer that is a seasonal employer, or employment by a non-profit or government entity of an individual who is not employed by that employer outside of the period of that year commencing on May 1 and ending September 30, or employment by a governmental entity in a recreational program or service during the period commencing on May 1 and ending September 30, except that "seasonal employment" does not include employment of employees engaged to labor on a farm on either a piece-rate or regular hourly rate basis.
"Seasonal employer" means an employer who exclusively provides its services in a continuous period of not more than 10 weeks during the months of June, July, August, and September, or an employer for which, during the immediately previous calendar year, not less than two-thirds of the employer's gross receipts were received in a continuous period of not more than 16 weeks or for which not less than 75 percent of the wages paid by the employer during the immediately preceding year were paid for work performed during a single calendar quarter.
"Small employer" means any employer who employed less than six employees for every working day during each of a majority of the calendar workweeks in the current calendar year and less than six employees for every working day during not less than 48 calendar workweeks in the preceding calendar year, except that, if the employer was newly established during the preceding calendar year, the employer shall be regarded as a "small employer" if the employer employed less than six employees for every working day during all of the weeks of that year, and during a majority of the calendar workweeks in the current calendar year, and, if the employer is newly established during the current calendar year, the employer shall be regarded as a "small employer" if the employer employed less than six employees for every working day during a majority of the calendar workweeks in the current calendar year.
"Tipped employee" means any employee engaged in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $ 30.00 a month in tips. The definition of tipped employee does not require that the calendar month be used in determining whether more than $ 30.00 a month is customarily and regularly received as tips. Any appropriate recurring monthly period beginning on the same day of the calendar month may be used.
"Volunteer" means a person who donates his or her service for the protection of the health and safety of the general public. Such a person would include, among others, a volunteer fireman, rescue worker, an aide in the care of the sick, aged, young, mentally ill, destitute and the like or assistant in religious, eleemosynary, educational, hospital, cultural and similar activities.
"Wages" means any monies due an employee from an employer for services rendered or made available by the employee to the employer as a result of their employment relationship including commissions, bonus, and piecework compensation and including the fair value of any food or lodgings supplied by an employer to an employee.
"Work hours" means the actual hours suffered or permitted to work.