Industries Served

Employment and Labor Law Advice Across Southwest Florida Industries

Gunterfirm almost exclusively handles employment and labor cases in Naples, Fort Myers and the surrounding communities. The Southwest portion of Florida has a wide range of industries, including hospitality, healthcare, construction, education, finance, retail, law, arts, sciences and agriculture. Our firm helps businesses and employees at every level of these industries.

Our clients include:

• CEOs
• Executives
• Small Business Owners
• Teachers
• Doctors
• Nurses
• Attorneys
• Wait staff
• Bartenders
• Construction workers

We also represent hospitals, schools, contractors, firms and corporations throughout the region.

Each industry and each job has a unique set of regulations and concerns. Eighteen years of experience has equipped Jason Gunter to take on the most challenging employment and labor law cases in all of the industries and trades in the Southwest Florida market. Jason Gunter is Florida Bar Board Certified in Employment and Labor Law, and committed to strong businesses and a productive, healthy workforce.

Executives, Professionals and Specialty Workers

Certain employees tend to have greater access to confidential information and trade secrets of the company. In addition, businesses may spend more money on training and retention. Businesses often protect their investment in executives, professionals and specialty workers through non-compete agreements that prevent former employees from performing the same job for competitors. A non-compete contract that is overly broad in regards to duties, geographic area, market or time period in which the restrictions are in place is unenforceable.

Although businesses are generally allowed to fire workers at will, and conversely, workers can quit for no reason, many employers choose to engage valuable employees in an executive contract that binds the parties to negotiated terms.

Management and Hourly Workers

Hourly employees are entitled to the Florida minimum wage of $8.05 per hour and wage-plus-one-half for work performed in excess of 40 hours in a workweek. The administrative exemption relieves businesses of the overtime pay requirement for employees whose primary duty is non-manual management of the business and who make a salary of at least $455 per week. This line can become blurred for floor managers and managers of small businesses who may at times wear many hats, including taking on the duties of hourly employees.

Tipped Employees

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets a different pay standard for tipped employees, such as restaurant servers, bartenders and bellhops. The minimum wage a business must pay a tipped employee is $2.13 per hour with a $5.12 tip credit to pay the current Florida minimum wage of $8.05. If the employee makes below $5.12 in tips, the business is responsible for making up the difference.

Front of house in restaurants may pool tips to be shared. However, the pooled tips can only be divided between workers who customarily receive tips and cannot be used to pay back of the house employees, such as chefs, cooks and dishwashers.

Consult with Jason Gunter About Complex Employment and Labor Law Issues

Gunterfirm represents Fort Myers and Naples businesses and employees in a variety of industries and positions. Call our firm at 239.334.7017 or contact us online to discuss your issues with our dedicated attorney.