Opinion ID: 1928842
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: commissioner's powers to regulate overtime rates and to determine when they shall go into effect

Text: Appellants contend that the overall language and intent of the minimum wage act demonstrates that `overtime' has a restricted meaning and does not purport to confer authority to fix overtime in the sense of a premium or penalty rate for excessive working hours. The gist of their argument is that the purposes of the Minimum Wage Act are subserved solely through the establishment of the minimum fair wage, in this instance 80 or 85 cents an hour. They contend a complete reading of the act reveals its object to be the establishment of wage rates adequate for subsistence to which the concept of an overtime premium is alien. The meaning of a statute is primarily ascertained by reading the language employed in its ordinary and common significance. See Jamouneau v. Harner, 16 N.J. 500, 513, petition for certiorari denied 349 U.S. 904, 75 S.Ct. 580, 99 L.Ed. 1241 (1954); Julius Roehrs Co. v. Division of Tax Appeals, 16 N.J. 493, 497, 498 (1954); Abbotts Dairies, Inc., v. Armstrong, 14 N.J. 319, 325 (1953); Bass v. Allen Home Improvement Co., 8 N.J. 219, 226 (1951); Eckert v. New Jersey State Highway Dept., 1 N.J. 474, 479 (1949). The language of R.S. 34:11-47 amply establishes the intent of the Legislature to invest the Commissioner of Labor with authority to regulate the payment of overtime compensation, even though the rate adopted will exceed the minimum fair wage recommended by the wage board. This section reads as follows: Within ten days after the hearing the commissioner shall confer with the director and approve or disapprove the report of the wage board. If the report is disapproved the commissioner may resubmit the matter to the same wage board or to a new wage board. If the report is approved the commissioner shall make a mandatory order which shall define minimum fair wage rates in the occupation or occupations as recommended in the report of the wage board and which shall include such proposed administrative regulations as the commissioner may deem appropriate to supplement the report of the wage board and to safeguard the minimum fair wage standards established. Such administrative regulations may include among other things, regulations defining and governing learners and apprentices, their rates, number, proportion or length of service, piece rates or their relations to time rates, overtime or part time rates, bonuses or special pay for special or extra work, deductions for board, lodging, apparel or other items or services supplied by the employer, and other special conditions or circumstances; and in view of the diversities and complexities of different occupations and the dangers of evasion and nullification, the commissioner may provide in such regulations without departing from the basic minimum rates recommended by the wage board such modifications or reductions of or addition to such rates in or for such special cases or classes of cases as those herein enumerated as the commissioner may find appropriate to safeguard the basic minimum rates established. Said mandatory order shall take effect upon expiration of one hundred eighty days from the date of the issuance of the order. (Emphasis supplied) It is prominently ascertainable that the Commissioner is empowered to increase the basic fair wage rate in the special case of overtime. The meaning of the words used is so clear as to leave no doubt respecting their import. The petitioners' attempt to persuade to the contrary, while ingenious, is specious in its legal reasoning. There is no justification in the context of the act itself for limiting the Commissioner's powers over overtime to the situation where a fixed wage is ordered for a week comprising a certain number of working hours. It is suggested that the only type of overtime which R.S. 34:11-47 contemplates is that exemplified by the Arizona Commissioner's order reported in 4 C.C.H., Labor Law Reporter, par. 44055.01, Order No. 2A, for the laundry and dry cleaning industry. There a pay scale of $18.72 was established for a week not exceeding 36 hours. This amounted to 52 cents an hour. For hours worked past 36 during any one week, an hourly rate of 52 cents an hour is specified. Thus, the Arizona employer is prevented from evading or nullifying the effects of the minimum wage order by working his employees overtime at no extra pay or a reduced rate. But this argument ignores the fact that our act explicitly states the Commissioner may work such modifications or reductions of or addition to,  the minimum fair wage as he may find appropriate to safeguard the basic rates established. (Emphasis supplied) Addition is defined in Webster's New International Dictionary as the act, process, or instance of adding; also, anything added; increase; augmentation; accession;   . Therefore, the Commissioner has the authority to increase the basic minimum rates through provisions for overtime. The rationale justifying his endowment with this power, as it relates to the purposes of the Minimum Wage Act, will be discussed hereafter. It is said the section under discussion does not in specific terms imbue the Commissioner with authority to designate the number of hours after which the overtime rates shall take effect. While it is true powers or jurisdiction may not be simply implied on behalf of an administrative official, the grant of an express power is always attended by the incidental authority fairly and reasonably necessary or appropriate to make it effective. Jersey City v. State Water Policy Comm., 118 N.J.L. 72 ( E. & A. 1937); 3 Sutherland, Statutory Construction (1943 ed. ), § 6604; 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Bodies and Procedure, § 50. See Tanis v. Passaic County, 126 N.J.L. 303, 305 ( E. & A. 1940); Belfer v. Borrella, 9 N.J. Super. 287, 293 ( App. Div. 1950). It is patent that the legislative grant to the Commissioner to control overtime rates is successfully emasculated unless he can determine at what point in the work week they should apply. There is little justification for enlisting in the cause of futility when a rational result is otherwise available. We think the intention of the Legislature to give the Commissioner power to establish overtime rates effective after a prescribed number of hours is evident, and we are reassured by the fact that every relevant principle of statutory construction discussed under Point III confirms our conclusion.