Request By:
Virgil Osborne
Executive Director
E.K.C.E.P.
P. O. Box 1035
Hazard, Kentucky 41701
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You seek our opinion as to how to treat participants under federally funded training programs (i.e. CETA, JTPA). It is your contention that with the exception of on-the-job training participants, who are employees of the company or firm to which they are assigned, other participants are not employees, but trainees.
Your letter does not indicate the exact area of concern, but, in subsequent telephone conversations, we have clarified that the question appears to be whether or not such participants are subject to the Kentucky Minimum Wage Laws.
Department of Labor Regulation 803 KAR 1:005 delves in great depth as to the employer-employee relationship. Obviously, before the Minimum Wage Laws are applicable, there must be a true employer-employee relationship in existence.
Where the participants you describe are not working directly for an employer, but are engaged in activity as part of the learning process as students under the aforesaid regulation, the state Minimum Wage Laws would not be applicable.
To be certain, we suggest that you present specific fact situations as to student activities to the Division of Employment Standards and Mediation in the Kentucky Department of Labor to determine whether such specific positions fall within the categories exempted from Kentucky Minimum Wage Laws. We enclose a copy of Department of Labor Regulation 803 KAR 1:005 for your information.