Posts Tagged ‘ FLSA ’

Overtime Pay: How do I Know if my Employer Owes me Money?

October 5th, 2009. By Kristine B

Yeah, it sounds like a bad Whitney Houston flashback…”How will I know if he…” Whoa there—back on topic. Overtime pay? Good question. So that’s the focus of this week’s Pleading Ignorance.

If you’ve opened a newspaper lately—or looked at virtually any news website including our own recent post on 61 companies with OT pay issues—you’ll know one of the major issues in US courts right now is Overtime Pay—or more aptly, missing overtime pay from a lot of folks’ paychecks. What you might not have known is that overtime laws in the US are not as clear-cut as many people think. In fact, if you’re not getting overtime pay there’s still a chance you should be. How’s that? Read on… Pleading Ignorance looks at Overtime Pay this week

Overtime in a Nutshell

Basically, overtime occurs when a person works more than a set amount of time either daily (over 8 hours in a day), or weekly (over 40 hours in a week). Overtime is regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and by state laws. When both the state and the FLSA cover overtime, employers must go with whichever one holds the employer to the highest standards—essentially meaning whichever one provides the most pay to the employee (that’s good news for the employee).

When an employee works more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week—and let’s be honest, who hasn’t worked that much at some point—the employee is supposed to get 1.5 times her regular wage (that’s the “time and a half” everyone’s always talking about).

So, let’s say an employee makes $10 an hour and works 44 hours in a week. The employee should be paid $10 for the first 40 hours and $15 for the additional 4 hours.

Seems straightforward, no? But it’s not, because not everyone is eligible for overtime pay and that is where things can get kind of tricky, to put it mildly.

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Tags: FLSA, Overtime, Overtime Pay, Pleading Ignorance
Posted in Employment, Pleading Ignorance | 2 Comments »

61 Companies with Wage & Hour Overtime Pay Issues

August 7th, 2009. By AbiK

punch time clock21 300x300 61 Companies with Wage & Hour Overtime Pay Issues And that’s the tip of the iceberg—the list below are companies that have either had claims brought against them for FSLA overtime pay issues or have actually settled with claimants in regard to overtime pay. The list itself, compiled from LawyersandSettlements.com archives, covers 2003-present.

But the 5th Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, published by Seyfarth Shaw back in January, also reported that wage and hour class actions in 2008 for the top ten private settlements entered into or paid totaled $252.7 million. No small chunk of change—and that was just 2008, just the top TEN.

So if you’re thinking that working overtime without pay is just something you have to put up with for the privilege of having a job–or that it doesn’t happen too often, guess again. And if you think you might be in such a situation, you might want to talk to a lawyer.

61 Companies…

Abercrombie & Fitch ($2 million settlement)

Activision Inc.

ADT

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Tags: FLSA, Overtime
Posted in Emerging Issues | No Comments »