/wage-hour-qa

name: wage-hour-qa
description: >
  Jurisdiction-aware wage/hour and employment Q&A — classification, overtime,
  meal/rest breaks, leave, final pay — answered for the specific state/country
  with the controlling rule researched and cited rather than stated from
  memory. Use when the user asks any employment law question, or says "what's
  the rule in [state]", "is this exempt", "do we have to pay overtime for",
  or "can we classify this as".
argument-hint: "[question]"

/wage-hour-qa

1. Load `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md` → jurisdictional footprint. 2. Use the workflow below. 3. Identify jurisdiction the question is about. If not specified, ask. 4. Answer per that jurisdiction's rule. Cite. Flag if it's a close call or law is shifting.

---

Matter context

**Matter context.** Check `## Matter workspaces` in the practice-level CLAUDE.md. If `Enabled` is `✗` (the default for in-house users), skip the rest of this paragraph — skills use practice-level context and the matter machinery is invisible. If enabled and there is no active matter, ask: "Which matter is this for? Run `/employment-legal:matter-workspace switch <slug>` or say `practice-level`." Load the active matter's `matter.md` for matter-specific context and overrides. Write outputs to the matter folder at `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/matters/<matter-slug>/`. Never read another matter's files unless `Cross-matter context` is `on`.

---

Purpose

"It depends" is true but unhelpful. This skill produces a jurisdiction-specific answer grounded in researched, cited primary sources — and flags when the question is close enough to need human judgment. It does not state rules from memory: wage-and-hour thresholds, exemption criteria, and final-pay timing change frequently and vary meaningfully by state.

Load context

`~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md` → jurisdictional footprint. If the question doesn't specify a jurisdiction, ask — or answer for the state with the most employees and note that.

The answer

Step 1: Jurisdiction

Which state/country is this about? If not stated:

• If it's about a specific employee: where do they work?
• If it's a policy question: identify the jurisdictions in the footprint that

are most likely to be the most restrictive on the question at hand, then research those.

Step 2: Research the rule, then state it

> **Research before answering.** For the jurisdiction and question, identify > the currently operative rule. Cite the controlling primary source (statute, > regulation, wage order, or case) with a pinpoint cite. Note the effective > date and whether the rule has been recently amended, indexed, or is in > litigation. If you are uncertain or cannot verify the current state of the > law, say so and flag for attorney verification — do not state a rule you > haven't confirmed.

State the rule in one paragraph, tied to the cite. Use your tools (web search, legal research integrations, team reference materials) to verify currency — especially for:

> **No silent supplement.** If a research query to the configured legal research tool (Westlaw, CourtListener, or firm platform) returns few or no results for the jurisdiction-and-question, report what was found and stop. Do NOT fill the gap from web search or model knowledge without asking. Say: "The search returned [N] results from [tool]. Coverage appears thin for [jurisdiction / question]. Options: (1) broaden the search query, (2) try a different research tool, (3) search the web — results will be tagged `[web search — verify]` and should be checked against a primary source before relying, or (4) flag the question as unverified and stop here. Which would you like?" A lawyer decides whether to accept lower-confidence sources. > > **Source attribution.** Tag every citation in the answer with where it came from: `[Westlaw]`, `[CourtListener]`, or the MCP tool name for citations retrieved from a legal research connector; `[web search — verify]` for web-search citations; `[model knowledge — verify]` for citations recalled from training data; `[user provided]` for citations the user supplied. Citations tagged `verify` carry higher fabrication risk and should be checked first. Never strip or collapse the tags.

• Salary thresholds for any exemption (federal and state — several states

index annually and several have tiered thresholds by employer size).

• Final-pay timing on termination vs. resignation (many states differ).
• PTO payout requirements (jurisdiction-specific; some require, some leave

it to policy, some depend on accrual-plan design).

• Meal and rest break rules and any penalty-pay consequence.
• Daily or weekly overtime rules (some states have daily overtime and

double-time rules that federal law does not).

• Classification tests — see the worker-classification skill; the applicable

test depends on jurisdiction and purpose.

Common question types you may be asked — for each, the answer is jurisdiction-specific and time-sensitive. Do not state the rule here; route to research:

• "Is this role exempt?" — Research the applicable federal and state salary

thresholds (verify current amounts and any employer-size tiers) and the applicable duties test(s).

• "Do we have to pay overtime for X?" — Research federal FLSA overtime plus

any state-specific overtime rules (daily OT, double-time, alternative workweeks).

• "Do we have to provide meal/rest breaks?" — Research the applicable

state rule and any penalty-pay consequence for missed breaks.

• "When is final pay due?" — Research the applicable state rule, including

whether timing differs for termination vs. resignation and whether waiting-time or late-pay penalties apply.

• "Do we have to pay out accrued PTO?" — Research the applicable state rule

and any carve-out for accrual-cap or use-it-or-lose-it policies.

• "Can we classify this person as a c