Overtime Pay Losses Add Up to Huge Amounts

New York, NYIt may not seem like a lot when looked at individually, but overtime pay losses can actually add up to a lot of money over the course of a few weeks, months or even years. That is why some employees are fighting back, trying to make their employers honor overtime laws—because violations of overtime rules mean that hard-working, honest employees lose out on money they desperately need.

Many lawsuits are now being filed, and settled, alleging employers violate overtime laws. They are filed because employees rely on their pay, and their overtime pay, to help them make ends meet. These employees are tired of being taken advantage of and want their employers to properly compensate them for their hours worked.

In overtime cases, the courts are siding with employees who are being taken advantage of. Recently, the owner of a series of Asian restaurants in New York was told to pay $2.3 million to 813 employees. New York's State Labor Department called the award the largest amount ever collected in a single case of overtime violations and minimum wage violations. The previous highest award was $1.5 million assessed against Amish Market gourmet shops in February 2009.

The owner of the restaurants also faces a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of 44 employees who worked at 3 of his restaurants. According to the state labor commissioner, the employer denied his employees overtime pay, paid them late and paid them less than minimum wage. Astonishingly, the investigation found that some workers who worked up to 60 hours a week earned less than $5 an hour. Workers were owed up to $30,000 for unpaid overtime between 2002 and 2006.

One employee, as noted in the New York Times, said she worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for 2 years and earned only $350 a month, not counting her tips.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Tenet Healthcare Corp agreed to pay $85 million to settle claims that staff in California were not paid overtime when they worked 12-hour shifts. The award covers approximately 23,000 current and former hospital employees, including nurses. The lawsuit was filed by a respiratory therapist, who alleged Tenet lowered the hourly pay rate for some employees, resulting in their net wages staying the same even after they worked overtime.

The company has admitted no wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement. Plaintiffs are expected to receive between $150 and $30,000 in compensation for overtime pay.

Those awards may seem small when compared with the amounts thrown about on Wall Street, especially compared with massive bonuses handed out to AIG and other bank executives, but the people who win these overtime awards desperately need that money. They rely on their pay to get them through from week to week and help them pay their bills. They count on their employers to pay them fairly for the hours they worked.

Overtime laws were enacted to protect employees from working long hours without proper compensation. They are meant to prevent employers from taking advantage of employees by requiring them to work many hours without being paid properly.

Although it may not seem like a lot of money when looked at on a daily basis—maybe only a couple of dollars a day—when looked at on a monthly or yearly basis, the unpaid overtime can add up to a lot of money. In fact, it can add up to $2.3 million for one employer.