Federal and State Overtime Pay Laws

Generally, for each hour worked over 40/week or 12/day by both salaried and hourly employees, federal and state overtime laws require overtime pay to be paid at a rate of one and a half times the employee’s regular hourly rate. That regular hourly rate, which cannot be less than $7.36, generally is calculated by dividing all pay for a week, including bonuses and shift pay, by forty hours. Overtime pay must be in the form of cash and not paid as “comp time.” In other words, federal and many state overtime laws state that an employer cannot require an employee to work 50 hours one week in exchange for additional time off in a later week.

One exception to the overtime pay requirement are so-called “exempt” managerial employees. An employee is not exempt just because he or she is given a title of some kind of “manager” or “supervisor” and told he or she is expected to do “exempt” work – it is the work that is actually done that matters. KL has handled many such managerial “misclassification” cases. Click here for additional information.

In addition to managerial “exemption” cases, there has been a substantial amount of litigation regarding whether overtime must be paid to the many specific following types of employees:

1) telecommuters; 2) customer service employees; 3) salespersons; 4) professional drivers; 5) loan officers; 6) claim representatives; 7) paralegals; 8) IT professionals and help desk operators; 9) loss prevention managers; 10) call center employees; 11) field service technicians/engineers; and 12) independent contractors.

If your employer is violating the overtime pay laws, you (and other employees) may be entitled to a significant award of back pay. Please contact us for a free and confidential case evaluation or simply to learn more about the legality of your employer’s overtime policies.