Have You Been Cheated Out Of Overtime Pay?

A Federal law known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay a minimum wage, and to pay overtime.

Employees are due overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per workweek in most situations. The FLSA also provides that non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours in the workweek must receive at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for the overtime hours (hours worked over 40 in a workweek). A workweek, which can begin on any day of the week, is seven consecutive 24-hour periods, or 168 consecutive hours.

Employers often violate the FLSA in one of two ways. First, employers often misclassify employees as “exempt” under the FLSA, paying them only a fixed salary regardless of the number of hours worked. Often employers will give employees titles such as “assistant manager” or “department manager” when the employee’s actual job duties do not involve the regular exercise of discretion and independent judgment, which is required in order for the employer to properly classify the employee as exempt and avoid paying overtime. Examples of jobs where misclassification often occurs are found in the technology, retail, financial services, and insurance industries.

Just because you are paid a salary does NOT mean you should not be getting overtime pay.

Second, employers frequently require or encourage non-exempt, hourly employees to work off-the-clock without proper compensation. Employees may be required to arrive at work early in order to log-on to computers, change to employer-required clothing, put on safety equipment, attend pre-shift meetings, or do other activities preliminary to beginning their jobs. Or employees may be asked to stay late, and be discouraged or prohibited from recording that time on their timesheets. Finally, some employers may actually alter employee timesheets to reflect fewer hours than were actually worked, or may pay employees for only 40 hours regardless of the number of hours submitted on timesheets.

If you are paid by the hour, you should be paid for EVERY hour you are required or encouraged to be on the job.

If you or someone you know may have been misclassified as exempt, or required to work off-the-clock without overtime pay, you may be able to recover those wages as well as additional money damages.

While the Fair Labor Standards Act does set basic minimum wage and overtime pay standards, and regulates the employment of minors, there are a number of employment practices that the FLSA does not regulate. For example, the FLSA does not require:

(1) vacation, holiday, severance, or sick pay;
(2) meal or rest periods, holidays off, or vacations;
(3) premium pay for weekend or holiday work;
(4) pay raises or fringe benefits; or
(5) a discharge notice, reason for discharge, or immediate payment of final wages to terminated employees.

For more information about the Fair Labor Standards Act, visit this page of the U.S. Department of Labor's Web site.

If you, your friends or family members have questions about unpaid overtime, please contact our law firm. You can telephone us at one of the numbers to the left of this paragraph, visit us online at www.kraftlaw.com, or e-mail us at info@kraftlaw.com.