Over the years, many employers have developed a misconception that paying employees on a salary basis allows them to save money and avoid paying overtime wages. Any employer who fails to classify salaried employees correctly may have to face legal consequences. It includes the responsibility to pay overtime wages to all salaried workers who worked over 40 hours in a week.
To understand your entitlement to overtime under the FLSA, you need to understand that employees are classified as ‘exempt’ or ‘nonexempt’ which means exempt from overtime or nonexempt and entitled to overtime.
Nonexempt employees remain entitled to overtime wages even if they have been hired on a salary basis. Employers that want to avoid paying overtime wages must correctly classify workers as exempt and if litigated have the burden at trial of justifying the exemption. (Only salaried employees with bona fide exempted job responsibilities can be considered exempt employee.)
Many employers do not maintain the records of salaried workers. Correct recordkeeping is the responsibility of an employer and not complying with it is a violation of FLSA.
If an employer fails to maintain the correct record of working hours, then his workers are entitled to the benefit of the doubt in establishing the hours worked. In such situations, employers face the burden of presenting the records of actually worked hours to rebut the presumption.
However, if you were misclassified as exempt without considering the duties that you actually carried out, you may be entitled to be compensated. With the help of an unpaid overtime attorney, you may help obtain justice.
Salary cases can be problematic and are some of the most difficult litigations in the overtime arena, thus the help of an overtime lawyer professional is highly recommended. Your attorney will consider several factors to calculate the overtime and whether the litigation will succeed. FLSA exemption litigation cases go to jury more often than not since the classification of the position is not only about damages backwards, but overtime payments moving forward and it may have an impact on the business’s bottom line.
At the end, we can say that if you are a nonexempt worker and get paid through a salary, you must seek professional help to know your overtime entitlements. An experienced lawyer can evaluate your situation considering all the valuable factors to ensure that your rights are not compromised at any stage.
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