Employment & Overtime Law Article:
Collect Your Unpaid Overtime
Has your employer failed to pay you minimum wage or overtime? Don’t delay! We can help you recover what you are owed.
Overtime rules can be very confusing, and quite often employees that are supposed to be paid overtime have not received it. When this happens, you have a claim for unpaid overtime. Your co-workers may also have a claim for unpaid overtime. Don’t rely on what your employer tells you because employers are often very wrong when it comes to overtime pay rules.
The general rules about Overtime Pay Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (or the “FLSA”) are discussed in the Department of Labor Fact Sheet 23 that is attached. Claims for unpaid overtime can be brought on an individual basis or they can be brought as a collective action overtime lawsuit (more commonly but incorrectly referred to as an overtime class action lawsuit). We will discuss this option with you when we meet with you regarding your overtime claim.
There are two ways that you are likely to be owed overtime when you work more than 40 hours in a week:
One way is called Enterprise Coverage, which applies when an employer has two or more employees and has an annual dollar volume of business of $500,000 or more. Enterprise Coverage also applies to hospitals, businesses that provide medical or nursing care for residents, schools and preschools, and government agencies.
The second way you are likely to be entitled to receive overtime pay is called Individual Coverage, which is when your job has you involved in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce. This could apply, for example, to a worker who assembles components in a factory or a secretary typing letters in an office or doing janitorial work in a building where goods are produced for shipment to another state.
These rules can be confusing but we will discuss them with you when we meet about your overtime case. In the meantime, the Rules for Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Fact Sheet 14 from the Department of Labor is attached for your convenience.
Exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
There are some exemptions from the overtime requirements in the FLSA, such as the Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer & Outside Sales Employees as discussed in the attached Department of Labor Fact Sheet 17A.
But sometimes exemptions don’t apply. For example, Manufacturing Establishments are treated differently under the Fair Labor Standards Act as discussed in the attached Fact Sheet 9. Blue Collar Workers are also subject to special rules as discussed in the attached Fact Sheet 17I, as are Security Guard/Maintenance Service Industry Workers as discussed in the attached Fact Sheet 4.
There are other special categories for exempt and non-exempt workers and not all of them are discussed in this article, but when you call we will discuss how the overtime laws apply to your particular job.
Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act
We can’t cover all of the overtime rules in this article but we have attached a very helpful publication from the Department of Labor. This is the Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Spanish Language Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act is also attached for your convenience.
© 2010 Lee Solomon
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