Rhode Island General Laws
Chapter 28-12 - Minimum Wages
Section 28-12-2. - Definitions.

§ 28-12-2. Definitions.
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 labor and training, or his or her duly authorized representative.
(4) “Employ” means to suffer or to permit to work.
(5)(i) “Employee” includes any individual suffered or permitted to work by an employer.
(ii) “Employee” shall not include:
(A) Any individual employed in domestic service or in or about a private home;
(B) Any individual employed by the United States;
(C) Any individual engaged in the activities of an educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization where the employer-employee relationship does not, in fact, exist, or where the services rendered to the organizations are on a voluntary basis;
(D) Newspaper deliverers on home delivery, shoe shiners in shoe shine establishments, caddies on golf courses, pin persons in bowling alleys, ushers in theatres;
(E) Traveling salespersons or outside salespersons;
(F) Service performed by an individual in the employ of his or her son, daughter, or spouse and service performed by a child under the age of twenty-one (21) in the employ of his or her father or mother;
(G) Any individual employed between May 1 and October 1 in a resort establishment that regularly serves meals to the general public and that is open for business not more than six (6) months a year;
(H) Any individual employed by an organized camp that does not operate for more than seven (7) months in any calendar year. However, this exemption does not apply to individuals employed by the camp on an annual, full-time basis. “Organized camp” means any camp, except a trailer camp, having a structured program including, but not limited to, recreation, education, and religious, or any combination of these.
(6) “Employer” includes any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, or any person, or group of persons, acting directly, or indirectly, in the interest of an employer, in relation to an employee.
(7) “Occupation” means any occupation, service, trade, business, industry, or branch or group of industries or employment or class of employment in which individuals are gainfully employed.
(8) “Wage” means compensation due to an employee by reason of his or her employment.
History of Section.P.L. 1956, ch. 3745, § 1; P.L. 1956, ch. 3760, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 28-12-2; P.L. 1957, ch. 104, §§ 1, 4; P.L. 1962, ch. 105, § 1; P.L. 1974, ch. 152, § 1; P.L. 1979, ch. 110, § 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 218, § 1; P.L. 1994, ch. 347, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 435, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 436, § 1.

Structure Rhode Island General Laws

Rhode Island General Laws

Title 28 - Labor and Labor Relations

Chapter 28-12 - Minimum Wages

Section 28-12-1. - Short title.

Section 28-12-2. - Definitions.

Section 28-12-3. - Minimum wages.

Section 28-12-3.1. - Wages for minors.

Section 28-12-3.2. - Wages for failure to furnish shift work.

Section 28-12-4. - [Repealed.]

Section 28-12-4.1. - Overtime pay.

Section 28-12-4.2. - Biweekly overtime pay.

Section 28-12-4.3. - Exemptions.

Section 28-12-4.4. - Regulations.

Section 28-12-5. - Employees receiving gratuities.

Section 28-12-6. - Occupational administrative regulations.

Section 28-12-7. - Revision of regulations.

Section 28-12-8. - Judicial review of regulations.

Section 28-12-9. - [Repealed.]

Section 28-12-10. - Learners and apprentices.

Section 28-12-11. - Posting of law and orders.

Section 28-12-12. - Records of employers.

Section 28-12-13. - Responsibility for enforcement.

Section 28-12-14. - Enforcement powers.

Section 28-12-15. - Hindering enforcement — Failure to carry out administrative requirements.

Section 28-12-16. - Discrimination against employees invoking provisions.

Section 28-12-17. - Payment of substandard wages.

Section 28-12-18. - Penalty for other violations.

Section 28-12-19. - Actions for relief.

Section 28-12-20. - Assignment of wage claim and action by department.

Section 28-12-21. - More favorable laws preserved.

Section 28-12-22. - Collective bargaining rights preserved.

Section 28-12-23. - Annual appropriation.

Section 28-12-24. - Severability.

Section 28-12-25. - Uniformity.