Frequently Asked Questions

Cited answers to the questions Nevada employers ask most — including the exceptions that change what you owe. Drawn from 45+ years of hands-on HR experience. General HR information, not legal advice.

What is the minimum wage in Nevada, and is it going up in 2026?

Nevada's minimum wage is $12.00 an hour and it is not going up in 2026 — the Labor Commissioner's annual bulletin posted June 29, 2026 keeps the rate at $12.00 effective July 1, 2026, and Nevada does not index the wage to inflation. It reaches every employee unless an exemption applies: the Constitution's own definition of "employee" excludes a person under eighteen employed by a nonprofit for after-school or summer work or as a trainee for up to ninety days, and a bona fide collective bargaining agreement may waive any part of the minimum-wage section if the waiver is explicitly set forth in clear and unambiguous terms, which matters in Nevada's unionized hospitality sector. The rate rises only if the federal minimum passes $12.00, if the Legislature sets a higher one, or if the Director of the Department of Human Services adopts a higher home care minimum wage by regulation. There is one statewide rate and no Nevada city or county has adopted a local minimum; do not take the rate from NRS 608.250 or NAC 608.100, both of which still print the superseded two-tier health-benefits schedule — NAC 608.100(1) still says $5.15 and $6.15. Superseded is the right word rather than repealed: the Legislature re-enacted NRS 608.250 in 2023 with that two-tier schedule intact and operative January 1, 2028, so a reader who checks the section will find it alive and recently amended and should still not pay from it. Price a mistake as more than back wages, because the Constitution supplies its own remedy: it forbids discharging or in any manner discriminating against an employee for asserting these rights, and an employee may bring a civil action for back pay, damages, reinstatement or injunctive relief, with attorney's fees and costs awarded to a prevailing employee. (Nev. Const. art. 15, sec. 16(1)-(8); NRS 608.250, NRS 608.670 and NRS 608.680; NAC 608.100; Nevada Labor Commissioner 2026 Annual Minimum Wage Bulletin.)

When do I owe overtime in Nevada, and what counts as hours I have to pay for?

Nevada has two overtime tracks: an employee paid less than 1.5 times the minimum wage — under $18.00 an hour while the minimum is $12.00 — earns time and a half after more than 8 hours in a workday or more than 40 hours in a scheduled week, and an employee at $18.00 or more only after 40 hours. The daily and weekly triggers are not additive; the Labor Commissioner has advised that you pay the greater of the two and, when in doubt, whichever calculation is more advantageous to the employee, and because a workday is the 24 consecutive hours beginning when that employee starts work, workdays overlap — hours in a later shift that fall inside the window opened by an earlier shift's start are charged to the earlier workday and can be overtime even on a short calendar day. No daily overtime is owed where by mutual agreement the employee works a scheduled 10 hours a day for 4 calendar days in the week, and NRS 608.018(3) exempts sixteen categories outright, including bona fide executive, administrative and professional employees and any business with gross sales under $250,000 a year. Read that subsection for what it actually says: it provides only that subsections 1 and 2 do not apply, so it switches off Nevada's overtime rules and leaves the federal ones standing. That matters most at the gross-sales line, because federal enterprise coverage does not begin until $500,000 but individual coverage reaches any employee engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce no matter how small the employer — so a $300,000 Las Vegas business that reads the Nevada exemption alone and concludes it owes no overtime at all is usually wrong. The executive, administrative and professional exemption carries no salary test on the face of the Nevada statute, and NAC 608.125(3) closes only part of that gap: it directs the Labor Commissioner to 29 C.F.R. §§ 541.1 and 541.2 to decide whether an employee is employed in a bona fide executive or administrative capacity, and says nothing about the professional category, so the federal analysis comes in through the regulation for two of the three and not the third; and NAC 608.125(1) separately bars giving compensatory time off in lieu of paying overtime. Through October 31, 2029 Nevada also excludes the federal Portal-to-Portal preliminary, waiting, training and travel time from hours worked while separately requiring pay for donning or doffing a uniform or protective equipment employees are not permitted to bring or wear from home; that language expires and the shorter pre-2025 version of NRS 608.016 returns on November 1, 2029. (NRS 608.018, NRS 608.0126 and NRS 608.016; NAC 608.125(1) and (3); 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) and 29 C.F.R. §§ 541.1 and 541.2; Nevada Labor Commissioner Advisory Opinions AO-2025-05 and AO-2025-07.)

Do I have to give meal and rest breaks in Nevada, and what about a 6-hour shift?

Yes, and the rules are lighter than California's: you may not employ someone for a continuous period of 8 hours without permitting a meal period of at least a half hour, and you must authorize a paid 10-minute rest period for each 4 hours worked or major fraction, with none required when total daily work time is under 3.5 hours. A 6-hour shift therefore triggers no meal period at all, and the Labor Commissioner's regulation fixes the rest entitlement at one 10-minute break for a shift of at least 3.5 and less than 7 continuous hours. Read the continuous-period rule with its second sentence, which is the one employers miss: no period of less than 30 minutes interrupts a continuous period of work for this purpose, so the two authorized 10-minute rests inside a 9-hour shift do not reset the 8-hour clock and a half-hour meal period is still owed. The statute is also silent on whether that meal period must be unpaid or duty-free, and it is better to say so than to fill the gap — what settles it in practice is federal law, because a meal period during which the employee is not completely relieved of duty is hours worked and must be paid. There are four exception routes, not one: the section does not apply where only one person is employed at that particular place of employment or where a collective bargaining agreement covers the employee, an employee may voluntarily agree to forego a rest or meal period with the employer bearing the burden of proving that agreement, an employer may apply to the Labor Commissioner for a business-necessity exemption, for which the Commissioner publishes a waiver request form, and the Commissioner may separately exempt a defined category of employers by regulation — the realistic route in hospitality, because it does not turn on one employer's application. Nevada gives no premium-pay remedy for a missed break, so do not pay California's one-hour penalty — enforcement runs through the Labor Commissioner, a violation is a misdemeanor that can also carry an administrative penalty of up to $5,000, and because authorized rest periods count as hours worked with no deduction from wages, docking pay for one is unpaid wages an employee can sue for, with a reasonable attorney fee added if a written demand was made at least 5 days before suit. (NRS 608.019(1) and (4)-(5), NRS 608.140 and NRS 608.195; NAC 608.145; 29 C.F.R. § 785.19.)

Can I pay tipped employees like servers and bartenders less than minimum wage in Nevada?

No. Nevada's constitution says tips shall not be credited as any part of, or offset against, the required wage, and it is separately unlawful to take all or part of any tips, so a tipped employee is owed the full $12.00 an hour in cash unless a bona fide collective bargaining agreement waives the constitutional provision in clear and unambiguous terms. Employees may agree to divide tips among themselves and Nevada permits mandatory pools across ranks so long as the employer keeps nothing, but do not build a pool that includes managers or supervisors: the Labor Commissioner's August 2025 advisory opinion says Nevada law does not preclude their participation and then directs employers to federal law, and the FLSA flatly bars an employer from allowing managers or supervisors to keep any portion of employees' tips, whether or not a tip credit is taken. Because a $12.00 cash wage sits below the $18.00 daily-overtime line, tipped staff are on Nevada's daily-overtime track, so a split or double shift over 8 hours in a workday owes overtime even in a week under 40 hours. (Nev. Const. art. 15, sec. 16(4)-(5); NRS 608.160 and NRS 608.018; Nevada Labor Commissioner AO-2025-08; 29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(B).)

How fast do I have to give a departing Nevada employee their final paycheck?

Nevada runs three clocks: discharge someone and all earned, unpaid wages are due immediately; if they resign, wages are due on the earlier of their next regular payday or seven days after they quit; and if you place someone on nonworking status — a temporary layoff where they remain employed and may be recalled, which excludes investigative suspension, disciplinary suspension, on-call status and approved leave — wages earned to that point are also due immediately even though nobody was terminated. Pay late and the employee's wages keep running at the same rate from the day they were discharged, quit or were placed on nonworking status until paid, for up to 30 days; that penalty is triggered only if a discharged or furloughed employee is still unpaid three days after the wages came due, while a resignation gets no grace, and the one statutory escape is that an employee who hides to avoid payment or refuses wages when fully tendered loses the penalty for that time. Budget for a lawsuit, not just a claim: an employee may bring a civil action against you at any time within two years after the failure to pay under NRS 608.020 to 608.050. The two forums are alternatives rather than a stack while one of them is live, because the Labor Commissioner shall not take jurisdiction of a claim for wages during the pendency of a civil action for the same wages — so an employee who sues takes the claim out of the agency, and a demand letter that threatens both at once misdescribes the process. NRS 608.050 is also more than the lien it is usually called: the lien is subsection 2, while subsection 1 is a separate continuing-wage penalty of up to 30 days, so citing the section as the lien remedy understates what a discharged employee can recover under it. Nevada has no statute requiring accrued vacation or PTO to be paid out at separation, so what you owe on an unused balance is whatever your written policy promises — but at 50 or more employees the payout is not the end of the accounting, because unused paid-leave hours under Nevada's paid-leave mandate must be reinstated if you rehire the person within 90 days of a separation that was not a voluntary quit. (NRS 608.020, NRS 608.030, NRS 608.040, NRS 608.050(1)-(2), NRS 608.135(2) and NRS 608.0197(1)(i); NAC 608.115(3).)

Is an employee handbook required in Nevada, and what does Nevada actually make me put in writing or post?

No Nevada statute requires a handbook, but the posting duties are specific, and the two posters commercial packs most often omit are the Labor Commissioner's own 2026 Annual Minimum Wage Bulletin and 2026 Annual Bulletin — Daily Overtime, both posted June 29, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026. Start from the Labor Commissioner's Required Employer Postings page rather than a vendor kit, but treat it as a floor and not the finished wall: it currently lists those two bulletins plus the printed abstract of NRS chapter 608 ("Rules to be Observed by Employers"), the domestic violence and sexual assault leave bulletin, the AB 307 DETR job-training notice, the lie detector limitations notice, the domestic worker's rights poster, the AB 190 kin-care bulletin that employers providing sick leave must post, and the SB 312 paid-leave bulletin, which the Commissioner lists as required even though the leave itself and the payday accounting of available hours reach only employers with 50 or more employees. What that page leaves out matters as much as what it lists: it does not carry Nevada OSHA's postings, the DETR unemployment notice, the notice identifying your industrial insurer — whose omission is itself a misdemeanor — or any federal poster, so a wall built only from it is incomplete. Separately, post your regular paydays and place of payment in at least two conspicuous places, and give at least 7 days' written notice before you change a payday or the place of payment. One Nevada duty cannot be discharged by a poster at all, though it starts at 15 employees rather than at your first: if you are an employer as NRS 613.310(2) defines the word, you must give written or electronic notice of the right to be free from discriminatory practices, including a statement that a female employee has the right to a reasonable accommodation, both to a new employee when employment commences and within 10 days after an employee tells her immediate supervisor that she is pregnant, and post that notice as well — the 10-day delivery is individual, and no posting satisfies it. Keep wage records showing gross, deductions, net, hours per day and date of payment for two years and furnish them to an employee within 10 days of a request; keep paid-leave records one year, domestic-violence leave records two years and each notice of injury an employee gives you three years; and after a termination let a former employee inspect their employment records within 60 days after termination, excluding confidential investigative files and arrest or conviction information — the inspection right does not depend on length of service, though you owe copies, at actual cost, only to someone employed more than 60 days who asks inside that window. Above 10 employees you owe a written safety program, above 25 a safety committee as well, an explosives manufacturer owes both at any size, and a medical facility must both establish a committee on workplace safety and maintain a written workplace-violence prevention plan, not merely keep the plan on a shelf — Nevada's workplace-violence mandate is industry-specific rather than absent. (NRS 608.013, NRS 608.080(2), NRS 608.115, NRS 608.0197, NRS 608.01975, NRS 608.0198, NRS 613.075, NRS 613.4377, NRS 616A.490, NRS 616C.015(5), NRS 232.933, NRS 618.383 and NRS 618.7312(1)(a).)

Can I fire a Nevada employee without a warning or a reason? We are at-will, right?

Yes — Nevada is at-will, and its exceptions are narrow: a public-policy tortious-discharge claim and limited implied-contract claims, both judicial doctrines rather than statutes. What usually makes a lawful-looking termination unlawful is a statute, and Nevada's discrimination law reaches only employers with 15 or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks of the current or preceding year — the same threshold as Title VII, not California's five — and does not reach employment outside this State or a religious organization employing people of its faith for its religious activities. The definition of employer excludes more than that: the United States, a corporation wholly owned by the federal government, any Indian tribe, and a private membership club exempt from taxation under section 501(c) are all outside it, and the sexual-orientation and gender-identity provisions separately do not apply to a nonprofit organized under section 501(c)(3) — a substantial carve-out for Nevada nonprofits that sits one subsection over from the limits employers otherwise rely on, at NRS 613.320(2) rather than (1). At 15 or more, three points catch employers out: Nevada defines race to include hair texture and protective hairstyles, but NRS 613.350(6) still lets you require adherence to reasonable workplace appearance, grooming and dress standards so long as they are not precluded by law and let employees appear consistent with gender identity or expression; the age protection begins at 40, so it is not an unlawful employment practice to discharge on the basis of age a person under 40; and discriminating against an employee for inquiring about, discussing or disclosing their own or a coworker's wages is unlawful, except where someone with payroll access as part of their essential job functions discloses it to a person who does not have that access. Several protections bind from your first employee: the marijuana pre-hire rule, which reaches any employer in this State; the pay-history and wage-range rules, where NRS 613.133 supplies its own definition of employer — a public or private employer in this State, with no count; and equal pay for equal work. Nevada's general retaliation section is not one of them. NRS 613.340 now names NRS 613.133 alongside NRS 613.310 to 613.4383, so opposing a pay-history violation is covered, but the section itself sits inside that range and takes NRS 613.310(2)'s 15-employee definition of employer with it — below 15 the retaliation hook is NRS 613.133(1)(c), which separately bars refusing to interview, hire, promote or employ an applicant, or discriminating or retaliating against one, who does not provide wage or salary history. Two more protections carry exposure a discrimination claim does not, and only the first reaches a one-employee shop. Discharging a juror or a person summoned for jury duty, or threatening to, is a gross misdemeanor, and that person may recover lost wages, reinstatement, damages, attorney's fees and punitive damages of up to $50,000; it is a separate misdemeanor to charge jury service against sick leave or vacation, to require the employee to work within 8 hours before an appearance, or to require work between 5 p.m. and 3 a.m. after a day of at least 4 hours of jury service. And you may not discharge someone for the lawful use of a lawful product outside work — that section is inside the 15-employee scheme, not outside it, but above that line it carries a private action and an award of attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing party, with the limit Nevada's courts have drawn on it: cannabis is not a lawful product for this purpose because it remains unlawful under federal law, and that goes for recreational and medical use alike. Whatever the reason for the discharge, all earned wages are due immediately. (NRS 6.190, NRS 613.310(2), NRS 613.320, NRS 613.330, NRS 613.333, NRS 613.340, NRS 613.350, NRS 613.132, NRS 613.133, NRS 608.017 and NRS 608.020; Ceballos v. NP Palace; Freeman Expositions v. Eighth Judicial District Court (Nev. 2022).)

Do I have to provide paid sick leave or PTO in Nevada?

Only at 50 or more employees: Nevada's paid-leave mandate applies to private employers with 50 or more employees in this State and not during an employer's first two years of operation, covered employees accrue at least 0.01923 hours per hour worked (about 40 hours a year for full-time) or you may front-load the year's total on the first day of the benefit year, they may use it from the 90th calendar day for any reason without giving one but must give notice as soon as practicable, and you may cap both use and carryover at 40 hours a benefit year and set a minimum increment of up to 4 hours; on each payday you must also give the employee an accounting of the hours of paid leave available for use. The section does not apply at all if you already give all scheduled employees a paid leave or PTO policy at that same rate, and temporary, seasonal and on-call employees are excluded; payout at separation is expressly optional, but unused hours must be reinstated if you rehire within 90 days after a separation that was not a voluntary quit. Two Nevada leaves have no size threshold: any employer that provides paid or unpaid sick leave must let an employee use accrued sick leave for an immediate family member's medical need, unless a valid collective bargaining agreement covers that employee, though you may limit that use to the amount of sick leave the employee accrues in a 6-month period; and any employer must allow an employee of at least 90 days who is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault, or whose family or household member is and who is not the alleged perpetrator, up to 160 hours of leave in a 12-month period. Do not read that as four weeks of mandatory paid time off: the statute leaves it to you whether those 160 hours are paid or unpaid, so it is a job-protected leave entitlement rather than a benefit you must fund, and it sits outside the 50-employee paid-leave mandate above. That 160 hours is also not general-purpose time off — it may be used only for diagnosis, care or treatment of a related health condition, counseling or assistance, court proceedings, or establishing a safety plan; it must be used within the 12 months immediately following the qualifying act, it is deducted from FMLA entitlement when the reason also qualifies there, you may require not less than 48 hours' advance notice for additional leave after the first use, and you may require documentation confirming or supporting the reason. (NRS 608.0197 including (1)(h) and (1)(i), NRS 608.01975(2) and NRS 608.0198(1)(a).)

Can I ask a Nevada candidate what they currently make, and do I have to put a salary range in the job posting?

No to the first, and no to the second — Nevada is a pay-transparency state but not a job-posting state, so a California or Colorado posting template over-discloses here. You may not seek an applicant's wage or salary history or rely on it in deciding whether to offer employment or what to pay, and you may not refuse to interview, hire, promote or employ someone who declines to provide it, though you may ask what salary they expect; you must give the wage or salary range or rate to an applicant who has completed an interview for the position, without being asked, while for an internal promotion or transfer the duty arises only once the employee has applied for it, has completed an interview for it or been offered it, and has requested the range — all three conditions, not any one of them. There is no employee-count threshold, but the same subsection that keeps the rule from reaching employment outside Nevada — which matters if you hire remotely into other states — also excepts a religious corporation, association or society as to the employment of individuals of a particular religion; both limits sit in one sentence, and neither is a small-employer exemption. Declining to answer is itself protected, so treat the refusal as a non-event in the file: you may not discriminate or retaliate against an applicant because they refused to give wage or salary history, and NRS 613.340 adds a general retaliation claim for opposing the practice or taking part in a proceeding about it, but that section sits inside NRS 613.310 to 613.4383 and so reaches only employers of 15 or more — below that line the protection is NRS 613.133(1)(c) itself, which needs no separate retaliation section. Price the exposure as more than a fine: the Labor Commissioner may impose an administrative penalty of up to $5,000 per violation plus the costs of the proceeding, including investigative costs and attorney's fees, and a complainant may request a right-to-sue notice once 180 days have passed after filing and then bring a civil action in district court within 90 days of receiving it. (NRS 613.133 including (1)(c), NRS 613.134, NRS 613.320(1)(a)-(b) and NRS 613.340.)

Can I run a background check on a Nevada applicant, and can I reject someone who failed a marijuana test?

Criminal history is largely open to private employers in Nevada — the ban-the-box provision reaches only state appointing authorities and the governing body of a county, incorporated city or unincorporated town — but it is not unrestricted, because once a record is sealed the proceedings are deemed never to have occurred and the person may properly answer an employment inquiry accordingly — subject to NRS 179.301, which preserves inspection of sealed records for gaming and law-enforcement purposes, a carve-out worth knowing in a state where regulated employers run on exactly those records. If a screening company runs the check, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a clear and conspicuous standalone written disclosure, the applicant's written authorization, and a copy of the report plus a written description of the applicant's rights before you take adverse action — and Nevada adds a duty that sits on you, not the agency: if you take adverse action based on a consumer report from a reporting agency, you must notify the person, give them the reporting agency's name and address, and inform them of their right to obtain a copy from the agency. On marijuana, you may not refuse to hire someone because a screening test showed marijuana, except for firefighters, emergency medical technicians, positions requiring federally or state-mandated driver testing, and positions that in your determination could adversely affect the safety of others; the section also does not apply where it conflicts with an employment contract, a collective bargaining agreement or federal law, or to a position funded by a federal grant, and an employee tested within their first 30 days may pay for a second test that you must accept and give appropriate consideration. Hiring is not the whole of the cannabis rule, and this is the half most Nevada employers miss: if an employee holds a valid registry identification card, you must attempt to make reasonable accommodations for the medical needs of an employee who engages in the medical use of cannabis, unless doing so would pose a threat of harm or danger to persons or property, impose an undue hardship, or prohibit the employee from fulfilling their job responsibilities. That duty is not merely a regulatory matter you can wait to be audited on — the Nevada Supreme Court has read the section to carry an implied private right of action, so the employee can enforce it directly. In Clark and Washoe counties there is a licensing layer on top: liquor and other regulated businesses may not employ someone until the sheriff or Metro issues a work card, and in the City of Las Vegas the employer must keep a current, inspectable list of employees holding one. (NRS 613.330(8), NRS 613.132, NRS 598C.170, NRS 678C.850(3), NRS 179.285 and NRS 179.301; 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b); Freeman Expositions v. Eighth Judicial District Court (Nev. 2022); Clark County Code 8.20.220, Las Vegas Municipal Code 6.86 and Washoe County Code chapter 25.)

Can I bring this Nevada worker on as a 1099 contractor instead of hiring them?

Only if the worker clears Nevada's own test — and note that Nevada has more than one, so a single classification decision is not portable across statutes. For wage-and-hour purposes under chapter 608, a person is conclusively presumed an independent contractor only if they possess or have applied for an employer identification number or Social Security number or filed a business or self-employment return with the IRS in the previous year, the contract with you requires them to hold any necessary state or local business license and to maintain any necessary occupational license, insurance or bonding, and they satisfy at least three of five criteria: control and discretion over the means and manner of the work, with the result rather than the method being what you bargained for; control over the time the work is performed; no requirement to work exclusively for one principal; freedom to hire their own helpers; and a substantial investment of capital in their own business. Failing that test does not automatically make the person an employee, but it costs you the safe harbor, and it buys nothing elsewhere: for unemployment insurance, services performed for wages are employment unless you show all three ABC factors, and for workers' compensation, subcontractors, independent contractors and their employees are deemed employees of the principal contractor unless the worker is an independent enterprise in a different trade from yours — an independent enterprise being one that holds itself out as a separate business and either holds a business licence in its own name or owns, rents or leases property used in that business. In construction, where this question gets asked most, that escape does not exist at all: the section creating it does not apply to a principal contractor licensed under NRS chapter 624, so a licensed contractor is left with the deemed-employee rule and no way out of it, and NRS 608.0155 itself supplies a second and different conclusive presumption — a three-factor test of the ABC type — for a person performing work governed by chapter 624, which is why one classification decision does not travel. Write the contract to the licensing prong, keep the three-of-five criteria true in practice rather than on paper, and price the risk as three separate exposures — wage claims, unemployment assessments and industrial insurance — not one. (NRS 608.0155(1)-(2), NRS 612.085, NRS 616A.210(1), NRS 616B.603(2)-(3) and NRS chapter 624.)

Do I have to carry workers' compensation in Nevada, and what do I have to do when someone gets hurt?

Yes, and there is no small-employer exemption — the industrial insurance chapters bind every employer with at least one employee under a contract of hire, though chapter 616A excludes some categories from "employee" outright, including household domestic service, labor that is both casual and outside your trade or business, and licensed real estate salespeople; where coverage applies it is also your protection, because it is the exclusive remedy for a workplace injury. Going bare is expensive, and the back premium is the smallest part of it: the Administrator can charge you the premiums you should have paid for up to six years plus interest, and you are separately liable for every payment made on your behalf out of the Uninsured Employers' Claim Account — the injured worker's benefits, the administrative costs of running the claim and the attorney's fees incurred — carrying interest at the prime rate plus 3 percent, compounded monthly. Collection is not a suit you get to defend on the merits: the amount may be reduced to judgment by summary proceeding and becomes a lien on all of your real and personal property, good for six years and renewable. A first offense is a misdemeanor, it becomes a category C felony if an uninsured employee suffers substantial bodily harm or dies, a second offense within seven years is a category C felony with no injury required at all, and the court may order restitution on top of the penalty. Post a conspicuous notice identifying your industrial insurer with its business address, telephone number and nearest Nevada adjuster and the chapters' definitions of employee and independent contractor — failing to post or maintain it is a misdemeanor — keep a sufficient supply of notice-of-injury forms on hand, and never deduct the cost of coverage from wages or require an employee to secure it themselves, which is a gross misdemeanor. When someone is hurt, the employee must give you written notice of the injury as soon as practicable but within 7 days of the accident and file a claim with the insurer within 90 days of the accident, and once a treating provider's claim for compensation reaches you, you have 6 working days to file the employer's report of industrial injury with your insurer or third-party administrator, on pain of an administrative fine of up to $1,000 per violation. (NRS 616B.612, NRS 616B.633, NRS 616A.020, NRS 616A.110, NRS 616A.490, NRS 616C.015, NRS 616C.020, NRS 616C.045, NRS 616C.220(5) and (12), NRS 616C.223, NRS 616D.200 including (3)(c) and (4), NRS 616D.240 and NRS 616D.270.)

Can I hold a departing Nevada employee to a noncompete?

Sometimes, but Nevada regulates noncompetes by statute and one whole category is off-limits: a noncompetition covenant may not apply to an employee paid solely on an hourly wage basis, exclusive of tips or gratuities. Otherwise the covenant is void and unenforceable unless it is supported by valuable consideration, imposes no restraint greater than is required to protect the employer, imposes no undue hardship on the employee, and carries restrictions appropriate in relation to that consideration — and it may never stop a former employee from serving a former customer or client who left voluntarily and sought them out, where the employee did not solicit them and is otherwise complying with the covenant. If you end someone's employment through a reduction in force, reorganization or similar restructuring, the covenant is enforceable only during the period you are paying that person's salary, benefits or equivalent compensation, including severance. A court that finds an overbroad covenant supported by consideration must revise it and enforce it as revised rather than strike it, but if it finds you applied a covenant to an hourly employee or restricted a non-solicited former customer, it shall award that employee reasonable attorney's fees and costs — so screen your template against subsections 2 and 3 before you send a demand letter. (NRS 613.195.)

How much family or medical leave do I have to give a Nevada employee?

Nevada has no state family and medical leave statute, so the federal FMLA is the floor and it reaches you only at 50 or more employees. Keep its two tests apart, because employers routinely merge them: the employer is covered at 50 employees within 75 miles, while the individual qualifies only after 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours worked in the preceding year — so a covered employer can still have ineligible employees. Below 50 there is no job-protected family leave at all. What Nevada gives instead is broader on one axis and narrower on another. Paid leave usable for ANY reason accrues at 0.01923 hours per hour worked, roughly 40 hours a year for full-time work, at private employers with 50 or more employees in Nevada; you may require advance notice but may not require the employee to tell you why, and an employer in its first two years of operation is exempt. Domestic-violence leave is a separate entitlement that does NOT carry the 50-employee threshold: an employee of at least 90 days who is, or whose family or household member is, a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault may take up to 160 hours in a 12-month period, and it is paid or unpaid at your option. Kin care is a third route — where you provide sick leave, an employee may use it to care for a family member, capped at the amount accrued in a six-month period. Pregnancy runs on its own track at 15 or more employees under the Nevada Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act, which is an accommodation duty rather than a block of leave, though a finite leave can be the accommodation. Nevada operates no state paid family leave insurance, so nothing replaces wages while any of this is running (FMLA, 29 U.S.C. § 2601; NRS 608.0197, NRS 608.0198, NRS 608.01975(2), and the Nevada Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act at NRS 613.4353 to 613.4383).