Find Wage and Hour Gaps Before They Become Claims

A wage and hour compliance review is a legal check of how your business pays workers, tracks hours, and classifies staff. For Florida employers, it finds gaps before an employee or agency raises them. This page explains what a wage and hour compliance review attorney checks, how the process works, and how to get started. KEW Legal, a Florida business law firm, offers this review to employers in Miami-Dade and Broward.

What a Wage and Hour Compliance Review Is

A wage and hour compliance review is a proactive legal review of your pay practices. It checks how you pay, record, and classify workers before any dispute starts. Florida’s minimum wage amendment uses federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) definitions for “employer,” “employee,” and “wage.” So the review looks at federal and Florida rules together.

It is not the same as defense work. A review is requested by the business to find problems early.

The review fits owners and managers with:

• hourly staff
• salaried staff who may not qualify as exempt
• tipped employees
• independent contractors who may work like employees

Businesses often ask for one before a hiring wave, a payroll system change, a restructuring, or a sale.

Common Wage and Hour Problems a Review Looks For

A review looks for gaps in overtime, worker classification, pay rates, and timekeeping.

• Off-the-clock work. Time before a shift, after clocking out, or spent on work calls may go unrecorded.
• Overtime math. Bonuses or shift differentials are sometimes left out of overtime pay.
• Contractor misclassification. Workers are labeled as contractors but work under your direction and schedule.
• Pay rates and tips. Florida’s minimum wage reaches $15.00 per hour on September 30, 2026. Tips can count toward it only for tipped workers who meet FLSA tip-credit rules.
• The 10-hour day. For manual labor, Fla. Stat. § 448.01 treats ten hours as a legal day’s work unless a signed written contract sets a different number of hours. Fla. Stat. § 448.01 reads: “(1) Ten hours of labor shall be a legal day’s work, and when any person employed to perform manual labor of any kind by the day, week, month or year renders 10 hours of labor, he or she shall be considered to have performed a legal day’s work, unless a written contract has been signed by the person so employed and the employer, requiring a less or greater number of hours of labor to be performed daily. (2) Unless such written contract has been made, the person employed shall be entitled to extra pay for all work performed by the requirement of his or her employer in excess of 10 hours’ labor daily.”

What the Review Covers

The review covers pay, classifications, timekeeping, written policies, and required postings. It ends with a written gap report.

• Pay practices. Rates, pay frequency, overtime calculations, bonuses, and commissions.
• Classification audit. Each position is checked against exemption criteria. Each contractor relationship is checked against the employee-or-contractor analysis.
• Timekeeping systems. How hours are recorded, edited, approved, and rounded, and whether all work time is captured.
• Written policies. Pay, hours, breaks, and timekeeping language. Florida’s Fifth District has said handbook policy statements are not enforceable contracts unless the manual explicitly says it is a separate employment contract, as in Quaker Oats Co. v. Jewell. Policy wording should match actual practice.
• Required postings. Under Fla. Stat. § 448.109, each employer who must pay the Florida minimum wage must prominently display the state notice where those employees work. The Department of Commerce makes it available in English and Spanish.
• Gap report. A written summary of each issue, its legal basis, and corrections ranked by risk.

How the Review Works, Step by Step

The review runs in five steps, from first consultation to policies your staff can follow. Each step builds on the one before it.

1. First consultation. You describe your workforce, how you pay, and how you track time.
2. Document request. You provide payroll registers, time data, job descriptions, contractor agreements, handbook sections, and any agency or demand letters already received.
3. Analysis. Counsel checks the documents against federal and Florida rules, including sample pay calculations.
4. Findings. You receive a gap report with each issue, its potential exposure, and corrective options.
5. Implementation. The firm helps revise policies, update job classifications, and plan how to explain changes to staff.

Timing depends on the facts, such as how many employees and documents are involved. The firm gives an estimate for timing after the first consultation.

Why Work With KEW Legal on This Review

KEW Legal works with Florida employers on wage and hour compliance review, alongside its outside general counsel work for business owners and investors.

• Offices. The firm has offices in Coral Gables and Sunny Isles Beach and serves businesses across Miami-Dade and Broward.
• Business-first findings. Results are framed around operational fixes and business risk, not only legal conclusions.
• Retaliation awareness. Florida’s amendment provides that an employer may not retaliate against an employee for raising a pay complaint, so corrections should be planned with care.
• Notice window. Under Fla. Stat. § 448.110, a worker must give the employer written notice before suing for unpaid minimum wages. The employer then has 15 calendar days after receiving the notice to pay the total unpaid wages or otherwise resolve the claim to the worker’s satisfaction. Finding gaps before a notice arrives lets you act within that window.
• Responsible lawyer. This page is the responsibility of Kristina E. Wilson, one of the firm’s lawyers. The firm’s lawyers include Kristina E. Wilson and Natalie Martinez.

Costs, Fees, and What to Expect

The first consultation is free, confidential, and carries no obligation to continue.

Costs for a full review depend on the facts, including the size of the workforce and the records involved. Before the consultation, gather what you already have. That includes recent payroll reports, timekeeping exports, pay policies, job descriptions, and contractor agreements. Bring any letter you have received from an employee or agency.

If a wage claim is ever filed, Fla. Stat. § 448.08 allows the court to award costs and a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party. That is one reason pay practices matter financially.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are short answers to common questions about a wage and hour compliance review.

Talk Through Your Pay Practices With Counsel

If you suspect overtime, classification, or timekeeping gaps, a conversation with counsel is the next step. You may be setting up payroll for a new crew, changing timekeeping software, or preparing to sell and want pay practices checked first. Call 305-990-2300 or send us a message. We’ll set up your first consultation, where you describe your workforce and leave with a clear next step.