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West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Chapter 18

West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Page 121 Chapter 18 WV WORKS Activities/Requirements

18.15 FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA) The Department of Labor (DOL) has mandated that the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 be applied when determining the maximum hours of CWEP, JOIN, Other Work Experience, and Community Service participation. In this section is the explanation of determining the appropriate hours to be assigned to an FLSA regulated component and how the case management system is used to track these requirements.

The following procedure is used to determine the monthly maximum number of hours of participation. The monthly placement obligation for all FLSA regulated components is based on the amount of SNAP benefits and WV WORKS cash assistance a family is eligible to receive during a month, including any amount withheld from the check to repay a previous overpayment and any amount not paid due to a sanction. NOTE: The minimum wage used for the calculation is the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher. The maximum monthly participation obligation is based on the following process: Step 1: Determine the amount of the WV WORKS benefit prior to any previous overpayments. Step 2: Determine the amount of the assistance group’s (AG) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit. This is the amount actually received by the AG, plus any amount withheld to repay a previous over-issuance. Step 3: Add the WV WORKS benefit and SNAP benefit. NOTE: When WV WORKS participants are included in the same SNAP AG with non-WV WORKS clients, a separate calculation must be performed, as follows, to determine the share of the SNAP benefits belonging to the WV WORKS participants. • Divide the SNAP allotment by the number of people in the SNAP AG. • Multiply this amount by the number of people in the WV WORKS AG. Drop all cents. The result is the amount of SNAP benefits used to determine the obligation.