Employment and labor laws in Kansas [Updated 2024]

Employment laws exist to maintain fair and safe work conditions. It's crucial to provide all employees in Kansas and anywhere else in the US with robust anti-discrimination policies, temporary leaves of absence for personal matters, and high safety standards to avoid work-related injuries or accidents. 

US workplaces abide by federal, state, and sometimes local employment laws. While Kansas, like all other states, defers to federal guidelines for many work conditions, the Sunflower State has separate state-level provisions for employee recordkeeping, overtime requirements, workers’ compensation, and wage laws. 

If you want to comply with Kansas’s regulations without the work of mastering all of its employment and labor laws, you can scale your business with Rippling’s Professional Employment Organization service—which handles your tax registration and management while steering you clear of any costly compliance mishaps. 

Employment vs. labor law: What’s the difference?

“Employment law” and “labor law” are often used interchangeably. While they both deal with preserving work conditions, they also govern different types of relationships between employers and workers. You can think of labor law as a subset of employment law that primarily deals with unions.

Here’s a quick glimpse at the distinguishing factors:

• Employment law focuses on issues between employers and individual employees—like wages, overtime, and workplace discrimination. 
• Labor law deals with issues between an employer and a group of employees (e.g., a labor union)—such as union membership, contract negotiations, and collective bargaining agreements. 

Wages and hours in Kansas

The Kansas Department of Labor oversees state-level wage payment, minimum wage, overtime, and child labor laws. Kansas employers also have to adhere to regulations from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Keep in mind that in Kansas, employers have to keep a record of all employee wages along with their name, job title, rate of pay, and pay stubs for at least three years. 

Minimum Wage in Kansas

Kansas’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. It’s pegged to the federal minimum wage, which hasn’t changed since 2009. The wage floor for tipped employees can be lower so long as their wage, including tips, exceeds the regular minimum. 

If you employ workers across different states, don’t assume the minimum wage is the same everywhere (Kansas’s neighbor Colorado has a state minimum wage of $14.42 an hour). No matter where your employees live, Rippling automatically flags wage violations based on state regulations to ensure compliance. 

Overtime pay in Kansas

Employees may need to put in extra work hours to finish a time-sensitive project or deal with unexpected job demands. The federal FLSA entitles most employees to 1.5x pay for every hour worked in excess of the standard 40-hour workweek, though there are exemptions for executive and administrative employees. According to Kansas law, employers owe employees not covered by federal overtime requirements 1.5x their regular rate for every hour over 46 hours worked per week.

It’s crucial to adhere to overtime pay requirements—in Kansas and wherever else your employees live. Rippling’s payroll software automatically adjusts pay rates when an employee's hours trigger overtime pay requirements.

Breaks and rest periods in Kansas

Kansas doesn’t require employers to provide their adult employees with rest or meal breaks. But according to federal child labor laws, minors (employees under 18 years of age) can’t work more than five consecutive hours without at least a 30-minute unpaid break. Kansas has additional child labor laws that prohibit minors under 16 from working during school hours, more than eight hours a day, or before 7 a.m. and after 10 p.m. on days before school days. 

Under the FLSA, employers must provide working mothers break time to breastfeed their nursing child.

Leaves of absence in Kansas

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible Kansas employees with protected, unpaid leaves of absence to deal with pressing personal matters—like treating a health condition or caring for an ailing loved one.

The FMLA is a federal program administered by the US Department of Labor, which Kansas’s Department of Administration manages for the state’s employees. Under the federal guidelines, employees are eligible for this leave if they’ve worked:

• For at least 12 months total over the past seven years
• At least 1,250 hours over the past year
• For an employer with 50 or more employees living within 75 miles of company headquarters

Covered employees get up to 12 weeks of continuous or intermittent FMLA leave annually for the following conditions:

• The birth of a new child
• Adoption of a new child
• Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a severe health condition
• A serious personal health condition that impairs an employee’s ability to work
• When a family member in the military is called to active duty

If an employee is the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin of a sick or injured military service member, the FMLA allows them up to 26 weeks of caregiver leave. 

According to the Kansas Department of Administration’s FMLA policy, this leave will first be covered by any paid leave employees have available. If they’re out of paid leave, their FMLA leave will be unpaid. 

In 2021, the Kansas governor signed an executive order granting paid parental leave to public state employees, where primary caregivers get eight weeks, and secondary caregivers get four weeks. 

Other types of leave in Kansas

Under Kansas law, employers aren’t required to provide paid or unpaid sick leave (apart from FMLA guidelines) or vacation time. Private employers set their own policies in employment agreements, which both parties must comply with once signed. 

Other types of leave stipulated in Kansas law include: 

• Jury duty leave: Employers are prohibited from firing or threatening Kansas employees who fulfill jury service duties during work hours (violations can incur damages). Jury duty leave can be unpaid. 
• Voting leave: Employees get at least two consecutive hours of leave to vote during election days. Employers can specify when employees can take their voting leave, but it can’t interfere with the employee’s normal lunch period. 
• Military leave: Employers are required to offer Kansas employees unpaid leave to serve in Kansas’s armed forces.
• Domestic violence or sexual assault leave: Employers must offer victims of domestic abuse or sexual assault up to eight days of unpaid leave to protect their welfare, health, and safety.

If you want to seamlessly manage your workforce’s time off, Rippling can help you automate and customize leave policies for your Kansas employees.

Workplace safety in Kansas 

Kansas employers must provide a safe working environment for their workers, which includes dangerous equipment training, notifying employees of potential workplace hazards, and implementing company-wide health and safety policies. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a federal agency that sets and enforces safe workplace standards for employers across the US. It publishes general industry regulations as well as separate guidelines for construction companies and small businesses. Kansas adheres to OSHA’s federal guidelines and has an OSHA office in Wichita. 

At the state level, the Kansas Department of Labor has an Industrial Safety and Health Division (ISH) that helps public and private entities address workplace hazards through a Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). 

According to the Kansas Department of Labor, employers with a physical Kansas office need to display workplace posters informing employees of:

• State unemployment insurance resources
• Rights and responsibilities for workers’ compensation insurance
• Child labor laws (if the company employs minors)
• No smoking signs (in accordance with the Kansas Indoor Clean Air Act)

Rippling PEO offers a pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation insurance plan that helps you scale your business—in Kansas and elsewhere in the US—without paying a lump sum up-front.

Discrimination and harassment laws in Kansas

Kansas law prohibits workplace discrimination based on: 

• Race
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Religion
• National origin
• Age
• Color
• Disability
• Ancestry
• Pregnancy

Employees can file discrimination complaints with the Kansas Human Rights Commission (KHRC)—which has state offices in Topeka, Wichita, Dodge City, and Independence—or with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The two agencies cooperate on cases via a “work-sharing agreement,” but you should file with the KHRC if your workplace has between six and 14 employees, where federal regulations don’t apply. 

Kansas also has strict laws outlawing workplace sexual harassment, following the EEOC’s federal guidelines and enacting its own state statutes. According to the EEOC, sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that:

• Implicitly or explicitly affects an individual’s job status or employment opportunities
• Interferes with an employee’s work
• Creates a hostile work environment

Kansas state law prohibits members of a workforce from misconduct involving unwanted sexual advances—whether physical or verbal—and quid pro quo harassment that affects employment conditions. Employers are required to create company policies for how to monitor sexual harassment and post them so they’re publicly available to employees. 

According to EEOC regulations, employers are held responsible for workplace sexual harassment when they knew or should’ve known about the conduct and didn’t take action. They’re also held liable when harassment by a supervisor results in a “negative job action”—like hiring, firing, or failure to get a promotion. 

Unlike in other states, Kansas employment laws don’t have specific provisions requiring sexual harassment training. But, the EEOC strongly suggests employers train their workforce on how to identify and prevent it. Rippling’s Learning Management System comes with pre-loaded sexual harassment courses to ensure employees know how to identify misconduct. It also automatically provides mandatory training if employees live in states that require it. 

The EEOC and KHRC will look at the nature and context of alleged conduct on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it was severe enough to be illegal. Violations can result in significant fines and penalties, as state and federal authorities take any form of workplace discrimination and harassment seriously. 

Unions in Kansas

A labor union is a group of employees who advocate for better work conditions—like higher wages, benefits, or rules governing promotions—as this “collective bargaining” bolsters their negotiating power. 

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is a federal law that ensures all employees have the right to:

• Join or start a labor union.
• Collectively bargain with employers through elected union representatives.
• File complaints with employers to address deficient work conditions.
• Strike or picket when demands aren’t met.
• Refrain from joining a union.

The NLRA also outlaws employers from threatening employees—whether with termination, demotion, or other forms of coercion—who want to join a union.

While the NLRA’s statutes apply to all US employees, some states are “right-to-work,” meaning a jurisdiction where employees can’t be forced to join a union and pay dues as a condition of their employment. According to Kansas labor laws, the state is a right-to-work jurisdiction—so while Kansas employees can join unions, they’re not required to. The 2023 US Bureau of Labor and Statistics data shows that 8.9% of Kansas employees were trade union members, which was below the national average of 10%.

FAQs about Kansas labor and employment laws

Are independent contractors covered under Kansas employment laws?

Employment laws typically only apply to full-time employees in Kansas, with independent contractors typically agreeing upon their own work conditions on a per-project basis. You can use Rippling’s classification analyzer tool to better distinguish the two worker classes and ensure you’re not denying de facto employees any entitlements. 

Does at-will employment exist in Kansas?

Yes, Kansas is an at-will employment state, meaning employers can terminate working relationships at any time for most reasons. Employers are prohibited from terminating for any discriminatory reasons, and there are other exceptions for:

• Whistleblowing
• Exercising free speech rights
• Filing a claim under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), which is for railroad workers to report employer negligence
• Filing a claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act

Does Kansas have pay transparency laws?

Kansas doesn’t currently have any pay transparency laws in place. 

Are background checks legal in Kansas?

Employers are legally allowed to run background checks on Kansas employees provided they get prior written consent and disclose, also in writing, what information they’re requesting and why. Kansas also has a “ban the box” law that restricts criminal history checks until after an applicant gets an initial interview or job offer. Employers can request criminal records reports through the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. 

Is workers’ compensation coverage required in Kansas?

Yes, under the Kansas Workers’ Compensation Act, non-exempt employers are required to provide workers’ compensation coverage administered by the Kansas Department of Labor. With this coverage, employees are eligible for payments and other benefits if they get injured on the job—so long as the employee quickly reports the injury. Exemptions include agricultural employers and employers who earned less than $20,000 in gross payroll. 

Are there required healthcare benefits in Kansas?

The federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers of more than 50 full-time employees to provide health coverage or face financial penalties. While employers of smaller-sized businesses technically don’t need to offer health insurance in Kansas, you should always consider joining group plans to make sure your employees’ well-being is protected. 

What employee protections are available in Kansas if layoffs occur?

The Kansas Department of Labor office has an unemployment insurance (UI) scheme that offers temporary payments—16 weeks per calendar year—to individuals who lose their jobs through no fault of their own and are available to work. The weekly payment ranges from $147 to $589. Kansas state law also mandates that whenever an employee is discharged (for any reason), the employer owes them final payments by the next regular payday.

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.