How to Sue an Employer for not Paying Overtime?

The Federal Laws regarding overtime pay, compensation and minimum wages are established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). If and when any employer fails to comply with any of those rules and regulations, eligible employees can file a complaint against their employer. The damages triggered in the FLSA are quite strident, and if you win your overtime lawsuit the employer will have to pay your attorney fees, costs, and maybe even double damages. Most overtime attorneys take these matters on a contingency basis.

However, before proceeding with the lawsuit, one needs to understand how the overtime compensation law works. Under the FLSA, every employer must pay the workers who have spent extra working hours, an overtime of 1.5 times their regular hourly pay rate. The compensation must be paid to those who worked more than 40 hours a week. The extra hours spent working after the 40^th hour is complete will be considered while calculating the overtime pay.

Another important factor to remember in this context is that only designations that are considered non-exempt are entitled to receive this compensation. Workers who fall in the category of exempt employees are not legally entitled to receive it. Jobs that are classified as administrative, executive, outside sales, etc. are exempted ones.

But even the exclusionary rule has certain exceptions. Even some of the exempted employees are also eligible for the compensation. For example a company will have to pay overtime wages to a salaried worker if the definitive criteria set forth to be exempt are not met. The administrative exemption is the one most often litigated. Someone may be called a manager, but if they just manage phones and not actual humans the company may lose the exemption. Just because someone is called an “account manager” for example, doesn’t magically make them exempt from overtime.

If you feel that you have been wrongly deprived of the compensation you deserve, you can file a lawsuit. For that, the lawyer will want to see any paperwork supporting your claim. The paper work would entail time sheets, employment agreement, payroll records, employment procedure and policies, etc. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything at all, since it’s the employers duty to keep these records, not you.

To find out what your wage right are consult a lawyer focusing on overtime lawsuits.

Sometimes an employee is not sure whether he is even eligible to file a complaint. In those situations, lawyers will give advice and tell whether you qualify or not. They may also answer all the questions related to the case.

Since labor laws are constantly prone to changes, it is the attorney who will keep you updated on the latest amendments and accordingly devise a strategy to win the lawsuit.

Overtime Payment Is an Employee Right!

After the great depression of 1930s, employment laws of the country necessitated that any employee who works for more than 40 hours, must be paid overtime wages. There are specific rules that govern the rate at which hours worked as overtime must be paid. As long as there are rules, people break them and employers continue to find ways to cut costs and lower wages at the expense of the workers.

Initially the motive of this rule was to put people to work which would improve the economic conditions of the country. But over the period of time, this concept has become a matter of fairness and an employee right, rather than a stimulus program to spread the work.

There are standard working hours, beyond which everyone is entitled to receive premium, and if the company refuses to pay that, the person can file a lawsuit against his employer by hiring an overtime attorney.

Many employers find loopholes in the policies and try to refrain from paying the overtime. They tend to do so by misclassifying the employees in a category, such as a salary, where they are not eligible to receive compensation. Other ways in which they keep workers deprived of their rights is by miscalculating the pay, making the employee work off the books or a variety of other schemes.

The Federal law states that for every extra hour spent working in the office, other than the standard working hours, the worker must be paid 150% of his regular hourly wage. If the company fails to do so, it can result in a lawsuit. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) governs these laws.

However, the attention should be paid to the fact that some professions are exempted from receiving overtime wages. Professions that are not entitled to overtime are called exempt and the ones that can be paid overtime are called nonexempt.

Generally, the professions that require advanced level of skills and knowledge, and managerial in nature are counted as exempted. In general any designation in which the person has to make critical business decisions and actually does so can be considered exempt from overtime compensation.

Such employees are paid on the basis of their salary. They will have to work the hours that are necessary to perform their job, and cannot ask for overtime. Still there are many violation of the salary laws and a salaried employee still needs to be paid more than minimum age and more than $455 an hour.

Many employers try to trick their employees by putting them into the category of exempt. Therefore, if you are not sure, whether you are entitled for overtime, you should first consult an overtime lawyer before proceeding ahead. Even if you’re salaried you might be entitled to overtime.

Your lawyer may help you receive your rightful money, if owed, by analyzing all the paperwork and information of your employment.