Overtime Lawyer Best Answers: What should I do if my boss won’t pay me overtime? Can I get paid for overtime if I’m salaried? Are managers entitled to overtime at time and a half?
The overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Ohio Fair Labor Standards Act require that all non-exempt employees be paid one and half their normal rate of pay for every overtime hour that they work. Employers do not like paying this higher rate and some employers even try to avoid paying anything once the employees reach 40 hours in their work week.
Our wage and hour attorneys have addressed the overtime tricks that employers play to avoid paying time and half to employees that work over 40 in the designated work week. But, it is worth revisiting some of the common tricks. Today, we look at two failure to pay overtime tricks that are often used in conjunction. Often employers will promote an hourly employee to a “managerial” position and congratulate them on now earning a salary instead of being paid hourly. Of course, once the employee is a “manager,” the employer expects the employee to work overtime without any additional income beyond his or her salary. Meanwhile, the employer starts dumping on a lot of additional work that requires the employee’s work week greatly exceed 40 hours per week. But, wage and hour law does not look at titles; it looks at actual responsibilities. This prevents employers from misclassifying an employee as a manager when he or she really has no managerial responsibilities, regardless of whether the misclassified manager makes a salary or is paid hourly.
One of our overtime law lawyers came across this failure to pay overtime example in the news. Holiday Retirement is the biggest independent living provider in the country and is owned by the investment management firm, Fortress Investment Group LLC. Sallie Cwik filed a collected action lawsuit against Holiday Retirement alleging that although she and other employees like her were given the title of manager and co-manager, these employees had virtually no power or the ability to make independent business decisions at the property that they worked at. The overtime lawsuit also alleged that Holiday Retirement failed to properly track and record the hours worked by these so-called managers and co-managers. Remember, employers cannot avoid their obligation to pay overtime wages by trying to place the burden to track all the hours on the employees.
Shortly after the trial court certified the class of 3,384 members, the case settled for $7.5 million in back wages, interest and penalties. The settlement is to be dispersed to all the class members based on a variety of factors, including length of employment. Additionally, Holiday Retirement will now be paying overtime to these employees moving forward.
If you believe that your employer is not paying you all of your wages for all of your lawfully earned overtime compensation at a rate of one and half times your normal wages as requires under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act or Ohio Fair Labor Standards Act, contact the attorneys at Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm today for a free and confidential initial consultation. Or maybe you are being misclassified as an independent contractor. The wage and hour lawyers at Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm will provide you with the best options for your overtime pay dispute situation. If you even think that you may be entitled to overtime pay that you are not being paid, call 866-797-6040.
Disclaimer:
The materials available at the top of this overtime, wage and hour web page and at this employment law website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. If you are still asking, “Am I entitled to overtime?”, “Does my job have to pay me for …”, “My paycheck is not right…” or “What do I do if…”, the your best option is to contact an Ohio overtime attorney to obtain advice with respect to FLSA questions or any particular employment law issue. Use and access to this employment law website or any of the links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship. The legal opinions expressed at the top of this page or through this site are the opinions of the individual lawyer and may not reflect the opinions of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, Brian Spitz, or any individual attorney.