Many workers lose money by being paid less than what they are supposed to be paid. Late or even unpaid overtime payments sometimes cause this issue. This issue often gets overlooked. Overtime is something that many employees experience in their careers. Unpaid wages for hours worked, minimum wage violations, and the like led to the U.S. Department of Labor winning back nearly $260 million for about 177,000 employees. This means that each person received about $1,465 on average.
Workers often search the question “Is it law to pay overtime?” and for most nonexempt employees, the answer is yes. Employers are liable to employees for work performed outside their schedules when the employer knows or has reason to believe it is being performed. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay employees for hours worked outside their set schedule, even if the employer never approved that work. Nonexempt employees are entitled to at least one and one-half times their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek.
Even with this policy in place, employers can still deny employees their overtime compensation through illegal acts. Examples of these acts include the miscalculation of wages, employee misclassification, the illegal omission of bonuses, and the practice of unrecorded overtime work.
Workers who have not been paid for overtime can complain to the Department of Labor or sue their employer.
The sections below detail the various unpaid overtime wage laws and explain the scenarios under which employees can file claims against employers.
What Overtime Usually Means
Based on the Department of Labor’s overtime policy, all non-exempt workers have to get overtime compensation in case they work for over 40 hours in a week, and this compensation should be at least one and one-half of the normal wages.
Workweek is a fixed repeating period of 168 hours, which may start at any day or hour of an employer’s choice, and hours cannot be averaged between two or more workweeks. An employee who works for 50 hours in one week and 30 hours in the other week will be evaluated separately every week.
The overtime compensation is payable on the regular payday for the particular pay period during which it was earned. This same guidance states that federal law does not call for any additional compensation for working during weekends or holidays unless the total number of hours worked exceeds 40 in a week.
Whether a position is exempt from paying overtime is a separate issue. The Department provides its own guidelines for exemption, such as executive, administrative, and professional exceptions. According to the Southern California employment law firm website https://www.wagerecoveryqueen.com/, employers carry the burden of proving that a worker is exempt from overtime, and the duties a worker actually performs count for more than a job title.
Ways Workers Pursue Unpaid Overtime
Back pay rules according to the Department of Labor provide various courses of action. First, the Wage and Hour Division can oversee the payment of any unpaid minimum wage and overtime, while the Secretary of Labor can file a suit for recovery of such wages.
An individual employee can also file a private suit. The right course of action depends on the case. Some workers prefer to have the Department of Labor investigate.
According to the guidance, in a private case, an employee can sue for unpaid wages, plus liquidated damages equal to those wages. Payments can also cover attorney’s fees and court costs. So, this amount can effectively double the wage.
On the same page, it states that an employee cannot sue if the Division has already supervised payment of the wages or if the Secretary has filed suit to recover such wages. The order of these actions may matter.
Sometimes, a worker compares government and private courses of action, and the pros and cons depend on the particularities of the case.
Time Limits Can Shape the Outcome
The issue of timing comes up quite often in wage cases. According to the Department of Labor, FLSA wage claims have a statute of limitations of two years. This period is increased to three years in case of a willful violation.
Since this statute of limitations is based on time, a delay will affect the total amount that can be recovered. State wage statutes may set different periods, so the state where the job is located also matters.
Records That Tend to Matter
Documenting hours worked is critical when resolving an overtime dispute. According to the Department’s FLSA FAQs, employers must keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid.
There is no federal mandate that employers provide employees with pay stubs, but some states require them. It is a good idea for employees to keep pay stubs on file for their own purposes. Useful records include a schedule of work, a screenshot of timekeeping software, emails and texts assigning after-hours duties, and a basic record of starting times, finishing times, and breaks taken during workdays.
Records of payroll history before and after the issue period will provide a fair idea of the employee’s earnings.
Overtime disputes also do not always involve hours that went unrecorded. Some involve how a worker was classified or treated on the job, so records of day-to-day tasks can matter alongside records of hours.
Looking Ahead
Unpaid overtime claims tend to turn on a handful of recurring questions. Some questions concern whether the worker is covered and not exempt, how many hours were worked in each workweek, what records exist, and how much time has passed.
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is the agency that answers questions about federal wage rules, and state labor departments serve the same role for state law. Gathering records early and learning the rules in the state where the job is located gives any worker a clearer picture of the options available.
