The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) governs cases alleging overtime violations. Employers are required to pay their employees "time-and-a-half" for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a given work week. Although there are some employers that are not required to pay overtime an overwhelming number of employers must comply with these pay requirements.

TYPICAL OVERTIME VIOLATIONS INCLUDE:

Misclassification
Employers will often designate an employee that it wants to avoid paying time and a half to as “exempt” when that employee is not providing supervisory duties that ordinarily exclude that employee from being paid overtime. We fully examine the particular duties of an employee who is not being paid overtime to determine whether overtime pay is being denied. Another form of misclassification involves designating an employee as an “Independent Contractor” to avoid overtime pay when that person is actually an employee.

Off the Clock
Some employers require that employees perform tasks before they “clock in” for duty. This is a violation of the overtime laws.
Lunch Violations – Some employers will record the employee as being at lunch automatically regardless of whether or not they are at lunch. Employers often will “clock out” employees at a particular time regardless of whether the employee works past that time.

Salaried Employees
A common misconception is that when someone is “salaried,” meaning that they get a certain amount per pay period as opposed to being paid by the hour, they are not owed overtime. This is not true. Even though an employee receives a salary, the entitlement to overtime is based generally on whether or not that employee performs supervisory functions.

Other Violations
There are many other ways in which violations of the FLSA occur. These include the payment of “comp time” instead of paying overtime, paying an employee at a regular rate regardless of the number of hours worked and the denial of pay that is actually worked. If you believe that you have an overtime claim, please contact us by filling in the questionnaire on this website.