Why there is a need to hire an experienced overtime lawyer?

Employers cheating their employees on their pay is a common problem today. The employers take advantage of their employees and their position and make them work some extra hours while paying less or no money for the extra work. In this case, an employee can consult an experienced FLSA overtime lawyer to claim their rights.

Some of the common problems faced by employee include-

• Paying less than the desired or state minimum wage
• Taking a tip credit, but not sharing the tips with the management
• Improper and useless deduction from wages
• No overtime pay
• Not paying the desired pay
• Extending the work hours without paying for extra time
• Not paying for the work done after shift or during breaks

However, if you are a victim of any aforementioned situations, it is always beneficial to seek help from any experienced lawyer. An experienced lawyer will help you by providing all the information about your labor rights and labor laws. Following are some of the situations where hiring an accomplished lawyer can be helpful-

• Overtime- If your employer refuses to pay for hours over 40, then the employer must have an exemption to the labor code, which can be quite complicated. There are a number of situations where consulting an experienced lawyer can be very helpful. You can speak to the lawyer and find out about your overtime rights.
• Wages- If the your employer makes you work for some extra time or makes you conduct some activities such as seminars etc that are actually for the benefit of the employer, then it is the duty of the employer to pay you for the work you have done. It is your right to be paid for all the extra work that you do.
• Improper deduction- If the employer deducts unnecessarily from your pay, then you must consult a professional attorney in your area. Legal help in this situation can save you from any improper deduction from your salary.

Therefore, if you are a victim of wage theft, you should immediately consult with an experienced attorney or a labor lawyer in your area.

Are employees safe from wage theft in America’s restaurant industry?

Wage theft in United States’ restaurant business is not new. In the last few years, many cases have been reported where restaurant employees demanded their unpaid salaries and overtime from employers. Many popular food industry franchises and establishments have faced lawsuits from workers over unpaid salaries.

Recently, the restaurant King Buffet was confronted with allegations of wage theft. Thirty-eight workers claimed that the employer owes them approximately $600,000 in fair payments.

According to the plaintiffs, they received salaries less than minimum wages determined by the law. Workers also worked for extra hours for which they never received any payment. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) took legal action in this case.
In 2012, the DOL helped food industry employees in receiving over $600,000 in unpaid wages and overtime. These workers were from two different cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The government took action against another restaurant chain, El Tequila LLC. In this case, the owner is alleged to owe nearly one million dollars in unpaid salaries and overtime to the employees.

In another case, a Mexican restaurant faced allegations of wage theft last year. This business was ordered by the DOL to pay more than $200,000 to employees in back payments and damages. Their workers never received payments for the extra hours over 40 hours in a regular workweek.

Recently, another food venue was ordered to pay nearly $45,000 in unpaid payments. This order was made by the department when they found that workers were cheated out of their fair pay. This was the clear violation of minimum payments and overtime laws.

Another inquiry conducted by the federal department alleged that Xanh Restaurant never paid overtime to their employees. After investigation, the business owner was told to pay more than $90,000 in unpaid overtime and damages.

Whether its food business or any other industry, it is necessary that employers pay their staff according to the rules and regulations determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

There are many ways waiters, servers, cook, bus boys, and other workers in the restaurant industry are shorted pay.  Sometimes, they are improperly paid a day rate and not paid any overtime.  Same with improperly paying them a salary.  Oftentimes, the employer takes a tip credit against the minimum wage and improperly pays less than minimum wage and sometimes nothing at all to allege the employee is tip dependant.

If you work in a restaurant and are the victim of wage theft, then you should immediately contact an unpaid wages attorney. An experienced lawyer can provide you legal counsel and can help you in receiving your fair payments from the employer as well as in getting appropriate compensations for the damages.

No one is above the law, not even the big brands!

According to the law, every employer is liable to pay fair for the work hours of their workers. If not paid properly, every employee has the right to file a lawsuit against employer. Not even big brands are safe from lawsuits when it comes to unpaid wages.

In 2014, the renowned firm LinkedIn Corp. was ordered to pay $6 Million to over 350 current and former workers. The lawsuit was filed on the basis of allegations that the firm did not measure the proper working hours. Payment was for the pending unpaid overtime wages and damages to the workers in many different locations.

Noted Allstate Insurance Company also faced similar claims. According to claims, the company exempted employees from the overtime rules determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Workers were not paid for the extra hours they spent working at job (over 40 in a regular workweek). Insurance adjusters are frequently misclassified as exempt from overtime, and made to work endless hours without overtime compensation. Even when they are classified properly to be paid overtime, often times insurance adjusters, like other industries force their works to work off the clock to keep their overtime costs down, but to keep their profits up.

In another case, the famous food chain McDonald’s faced allegations of not paying fair wages to the employees. Their workers from three states filed the claim for fair payments.

Subway’s franchisees also faced allegations of not paying legitimately to their employees. A claim was filed in which this franchisee was ordered to pay about $52,000 to workers.

A well-known name in baseball, the Miami Marlins faced allegations of not paying fairly to their staff. The team was forced to pay $300,000 to its thirty-nine employees. The San Francisco Giants is another renowned baseball team, which also faced a lawsuit from their employees. Team was told to pay almost $545,000 to seventy four workers.

There are several other examples where big brands faced lawsuits from their current or former employees regarding unpaid wages and overtime. It includes names like Uncle Bear’s Grill & Bar, a franchise of Dunkin’ Donuts, Rosa’s Pizza and Pasta Restaurants and more.

Every employee has the right to get paid for the work, efforts, and hours they put in their job. If employers are not paying their staff members according to the rules of FLSA, the employee should contact an overtime attorney. Experienced attorneys have the knowledge of law and experience in protecting workers’ wage related rights and can help you in getting your unpaid payments.

What Is the Overtime Rule for Exempt versus Nonexempt Employees?

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.

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.