Nurses Overtime

Nursing overtime lawsuits are on the rise. Some overtime lawsuits for nurses have been based upon missed meal breaks. Other nurses overtime lawsuits received settlements for work before and after shifts. Across the US, millions of dollars in settlements have been paid out for nurses wage and hour lawsuits .

Many hospitals and residential health care, assisted living and group homes do not pay proper overtime to nurses and other employees. Health care industry pay practices are the target of 250 new Labor Department wage-and-hour investigators (an increase of one-third), as reported by The New York Times (Aug 2010). Fewer than 36 percent of employers investigated in New York were in compliance with federal overtime law.


The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally requires an employee pay rate of at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and payment of one-and-a-half times the regular rate of pay for any overtime hours worked in excess of 40 each week, unless employees are found to be exempt.

Non-exempt employees must be paid for all hours worked, including work performed before or after shifts, during scheduled meal breaks, meetings, and paid training. Hours worked include hours worked at all facilities and departments or on-call, and the regular rate should include shift differential, bonuses or on-call fees.

Non-exempt employees are generally entitled to overtime at a time-and-a-half rate, including:

- Registered nurses (RN) who are paid on an hourly basis. (However, registered nurses on a salary of at least $455 per week who are registered with a state examining board are typically ineligible for overtime pay under the learned professional exemption.)
- Most licensed practical nurses (LPN), as they do not need a specialized advanced degree, and therefore do not qualify for the professional exemption.
- Most nursing home and assisted living employees who are paid on an hourly basis and who work more than 40 hours a week (rare exceptions exist).

Nursing care facilities may pay overtime over 40 hours each 7 day week, or, under an "8 and 80"agreement with employees, pay overtime over 8 hours a day and 80 hours every 14 days. For more information, see Nursing Care Facilities under FLSA To be ineligible for overtime pay, employees must be paid a salary of at least $23,600 ($455 per week) AND perform exempt job duties as identified by the FLSA.

Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA exempts bona fide executive or administrative workers or the "learned professions" from overtime pay. Exempt status is determined by an employee's actual work activities. Employers must ensure an employee meets the exemption requirements, including salaried or fee pay of not less than $455 per week. Payment of salary and per patient or hourly pay may compromise exemption, and fees should not be based on time taken to complete a task.

Registered nurses paid hourly should receive overtime pay, as should licensed practical nurses. However, registered nurses registered by a state examining board generally meet duty requirements to be exempted as learned professionals, if paid a salary of $455 or more a week.

The learned professional exemption specifies that a nurse' primary work duty must require advanced knowledge in science or learning acquired through specialized and prolonged intellectual instruction, and be intellectual work that requires consistent discretion and judgment.

There is also an exemption for home health care "companionship"; however, neither registered nor practical trained nurses are exempt from minimum wage or overtime under it. Nurses employed in domestic service in households are covered by the FLSA, but registered nurses are exempt if they perform nursing duties and are paid a salary or on a "fee basis".

For more information, see Nursing Care Facilities under FLSA Other state laws and regulations complicate the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations; however, entitlements are governed by the law that is more favorable for workers and provides greater worker protection. (For more information, see FLSA Overtime Pay)

Nursing overtime lawsuits are on the rise. In nursing overtime lawsuits, missed meal breaks are a common issue, especially in the case of automatic meal break deductions when a break may not have been taken. The employer must ensure a meal break uninterrupted by phone calls, consultations or patient needs is provided for hourly paid employees if they do not want to pay the employee for that time. In other nursing lawsuits, employers required workers to work before or after their shifts. Additionally, home care agencies have not paid employees for travel time between home visits.

Some US hospitals and health care networks are involved in overtime class action lawsuits:

- Hundreds of current and former hourly workers of Heritage Enterprises are proceeding with a class action based on automatic 30-minute meal deductions by a computerized system, though employees commonly worked through the break (Illinois).
- Non-exempt nurses are filing an unpaid overtime suit against Lehigh Valley Health Network . alleging that pay was calculated per shift rather than hourly, that nurses were required to attend at least 15-minute briefings before and after shifts, and that they worked unpaid extra hours routinely.

Other health care providers have paid millions to settle unpaid wage and hour claims, such as:

- Over $1.7m in back wages for 4000 employees from SSM Health Care (St. Louis, 2010)
- More than $2.7m in overtime back wages for 700 employees from Partners HealthCare System (Boston, 2009)
- $7.25m from Kaiser Permanente (who denied wrongdoing) to hundreds of allegedly improperly exempted registered nurse coordinators, case managers and other medical workers (California, 2007)
- $85 million from Tenet Healthcare Corp. (California, 2009) for nurses allegedly denied overtime pay on 12-hour shifts through a reduced hourly rate
- A $1.9 million class action settlement for understaffed nurse and non-nurse employees of Valley Presbyterian Hospital (California, 2009) who were routinely denied required meal and rest breaks to comply with state nurse to patient ratios.

Nursing Overtime Legal Help

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Last updated on Jul-11-12