Overtime Pay
Overtime Pay
The Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") requires an employer to pay non-exempt employees at the rate of 1½ times their regular hourly rate of pay for any hours they work over 40 hours in a week. (This is considered overtime pay.) The law only requires overtime pay when an employee works more than 40 hours in a week. An employer may require an employee to work more than eight hours in a day, but overtime is only paid if the total hours worked exceeds 40 hours in a week.
Employees who are paid a salary may still be entitled to overtime pay. An employer may not avoid paying overtime merely by classifying employees as salaried when the work they do requires the payment of overtime.
Not all employees are covered by the FLSA. The law differentiates between "exempt" employees who are not covered by the law and "non-exempt" employees who are protected by the law. Exempt employees are generally employees holding executive, professional, managerial, or administrative positions. Examples of exempt employees would be officers of a corporation, managers of a store, doctors, lawyers, and teachers.
Whether or not you are considered an exempt or non-exempt employee does not depend on the title of your job. If you are called a manager, but do not supervise other people, and do not have managerial responsibilities, you may still be a non-exempt employee entitled to overtime pay.
It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against an employee for making a claim for overtime pay. If an employee is fired or demoted in retaliation for filing such a claim, the employee can recover damages for this illegal act.
An employee must file a claim under the FLSA within two years from the date the pay was earned. The statute of limitations is extended to three years if the employer intentionally violated the law. Where an employer's failure to pay overtime is intentional, the employer can be required to pay double the amount of money owed.
If you have not been properly paid for your extra hours of work, contact the lawyers at Maurer Rifkin & Hill. We understand the law and can help you recover the wages you are owed.