I work for a small company, 15 employees. My boss seems to think that he is exempt from a lot of laws because of our company size. Recently he had a memo sent out stating that every employee is required to take a 30 minute lunch everyday. The time clock is monitored and adjusted for those that do not take a lunch and for those that are taking short lunches, the times will be adjsuted to reflect a 30 minute lunch. He also stated in his memo that employees are to work their scheduled mandatory 40 hours. AND Absolutely no overtime unless it is approved ahead of time. If it is not approved it will not be paid. (I have all of this in writing) Due to some personal issues, I have to miss about 3-4 hours per week for appointments. I have requested to be allowed to "make up" my time and have not received a response. So, I have taken shorter lunches and come in earlier to try to recoup some of my lost time. I have noticed that my time is being manually adjusted. We use ADP eZlabor manager online time clock and I can check my time daily. I know that MD law states that I must be paid for all time physically worked. My question is A: Because we are a small company are we exempt from this law. B: Can the payroll clerk that is told to adjust the time get in trouble or just the company? (I have forwarded her copies of the law but she is doing what she is told to do. I do not want to get her in trouble) since my time card is adjusted, how can I prove my case? I have kept a written record, but it is my word against theirs.

Your starting point is federal law (FLSA). This particular law among other things, controls Exempt vs. Non-Exempt, and the minimum wage and overtime rules. States can have additional rules but cannot make the federal rules go away, so the federal rules are really the place to start.

The small company argument is slightly possible but deeply flawed. The argument goes something like "the company has less then $500K in annual sales so the FLSA law is not applicable". That is sort of true, but mostly not true. The $500K coverage rule is the "Enterprise" rule, as in if the company has $500K in annual sales, then all employees are covered.

HOWEVER, if this rule fails, then legally the "individual coverage" rules are then looked to see if each employee (one at a time) has any connection with interstate commerce. Over the years courts have used a VERY broad definition of who is involved in interstate commerce. Technically you need to look at each effected employee on at a time and at all of their duties. Do they use cell phones (or other products) manufactured out of state? Do they drive on interstate highways doing company business? Are they in anyway involved with selling products that end up out of state? The courts of used some very creative arguments to say that employees are subject to FLSA. A maintenance worker doing touch up work on a small apartment building using paint manufactured out of state is subject to FLSA according to the courts.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs14.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs22.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs23.pdf
http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/breaks.htm

If by some near miracle the employee ends up not being subject to FLSA, then state law kicks in, and we need to see if the employee is subject to the state equivelant of these rules. Most states will place employees who fail to be subject to FLSA under their MW and OT rules. I have not researched your particular state on this, but even states with fairly weak state labor laws such as GA and TX have state MW/OT laws that can extend coverage to employees who are not covered by FLSA. And historically MD is considered to be a state with significant state labor laws.

Maryland has a Wage & Hour Law that requires payment of both a minimum wage & premium pay for weekly overtime hours. It also has a wage payment & collection law, equal-pay & child-labor laws, & a requirement for payment of prevailing wages on public contracts.