Need help? Contact a lawyer at Werman Salas P. Exemptions from Overtime Pay Law Understanding the Exemptions and Exclusions from Overtime Pay Law There are several exemptions — or exceptions — from the federal law that requires the payment of overtime pay. Several categories of employment carry specific regulations regarding overtime exemptions, including: White collar employee exemptions Highly compensated employee exemption Computer employee exemption Outside sales employee exemption Commissioned retail sales exemption Motor carrier exemption Employees in hospitals and special care Blue collar workers Police, fire fighters, paramedics and other first responders Independent contractor exemption An extensive list of the exempt status of specific jobs is also located on this website.
What is Work Time? Sometimes, an employer does not begin to pay for the work time until the truck arrives at its destination, so the worker is not paid for the time it took to actually load the truck or to travel to the job site.
This is illegal. In an office setting or call-center, many time clocks are on computer workstations. If an employee has to turn on the computer and wait for the software to load before clocking in, he or she is not being paid for work time. This often happens in call centers and may be illegal. Commissions and non-discretionary bonuses, or other additional payments that are directly tied to hours worked or to the achievement of specific results, must be taken into account when determining the regular rate of pay.
Incentive Pay: Many employees will receive extra compensation for special achievements, such as if they are involved in the training or educating of another employee. Q: What if I have no written records or proof of the hours I worked? Q: Do I have to be paid overtime pay for working more than eight hours in one day? Q: What am I entitled to receive if I file an overtime lawsuit and win?
Q: How many years can I go back to recover my owed overtime wages? Q: What if my employer tells me that I am an independent contractor? The FLSA applies to federal and state government employees. Q: What if I work 30 hours in one week and 50 hours in the next week, can my employer average the two weeks to avoid paying me overtime? Q: My employer tells me I am exempt from the overtime pay laws, am I? Q: Can I still be entitled to overtime pay if I am a salaried rather than hourly employee?
Q: How do I calculate my overtime pay if I am paid per job that I complete? Q: Can my employer fire me for bringing an overtime claim against it?
We will only receive a fee if we are successful in resolving your claim. An employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work. Employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act FLSA must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek of at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay.
The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime hours are worked on such days. In others, they go out of their way to avoid paying overtime to employees who earned it. Either is wage theft. Some common examples of overtime-related wage theft include:. Employers often try to claim workers are exempt from overtime when they do not qualify for exempt status.
There are strict tests for overtime exemption , and most employees do not qualify. You need to have specific job duties and meet a minimum pay threshold to have exempt status under the FLSA exemptions for professional, executive or administrative employees. Your employer should track and compute your hours worked and pay per week, not per pay period.
Some employers will try to average the hours worked per pay period to avoid paying overtime hours. There are four common ways to adapt to these seasonal busy periods:. In contrast with the other options, overtime offers the most flexibility to match the workload variations at a reasonable price.
Even when the workload is constant, occasions may arise when not enough staff is available to do the work. Short-term personnel shortages can occur as a result of employee turnover or absences such as vacation, illness, jury duty, military leave, bereavement or disability.
If the turnover and absence rates are fairly consistent, hiring full-time relief personnel may help. In most cases, however, turnover and absences do not occur regularly, so relief capacity may not be needed at all times.
Rather than hiring additional full-time, regular employees and managing excess capacity i. As with workload variations, using overtime to address staff variations allows employers to draw from a skilled pool of workers, and only paying them when needed.
Many organizations offer overtime to attract and retain employees. Offering overtime boosts the employer's appeal because many people want the additional earnings from overtime.
A survey by scheduling software provider Shiftboard found that 93 percent of surveyed employees are willing to work overtime, as long it is optional. Employers that offer modest amounts of overtime will both satisfy a majority of their employees and improve their competitive position in the local labor market. Although overtime can help employers and may be valued by some employees, there are limits to the amount of overtime that is beneficial.
High overtime, especially when it continues for an extended time period, has several potential drawbacks:. When overtime levels are constantly high, employees may become dependent on that additional income as a source of their regular pay. They might buy another car, a boat or a house and rely on overtime to make the payments. Consistently high overtime levels also may attract a disproportionate share of new employees whose financial situation makes them completely dependent on overtime hours and pay.
Research on the relationship between long hours of work and employee safety and quality is inconclusive. Some researchers have found that long workweeks increase the risk of occupational injury and errors. Other researchers conclude that a person's underlying health, demographics e.
Despite these mixed conclusions, there is no question that long hours of work result in less sleep and poor quality sleep.
According to the National Safety Council, 16 percent of workers surveyed reported at least one safety incident due to fatigue. When employees work lots of overtime, they do not get sufficient time off to recover or catch up on their sleep. This, in turn, can lead to fatigue and reduced alertness. Managers cannot ignore the possibility of increased safety and quality incidents under these conditions. Reduced sleep from prolonged high overtime levels will eventually adversely affect employee health and work attendance.
Numerous research studies have found long work hours to be associated with variety of health problems, particularly among older workers. Long work hours also appear to be linked to changes in lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, coffee and alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise. Ultimately, these unhealthy choices will be reflected in the organization's absence rates.
A number of studies have attempted to define the relationship between hours of work and productivity. Many of these studies have found that when high levels of overtime begin, marginal productivity slows. In other words, the total output increases, but the hourly productivity is lower than it was during the first 40 hours. After a few months of high overtime, however, total output may be little more than that attainable in a hour week.
This is believed to be caused by a combination of fatigue, poor morale, increased absences, work pace inertia, and rework due to mistakes and defects. The key point here is the duration of overtime. High levels of overtime may be tolerable in the short term, but they can become detrimental if they continue too long.
To avoid problems that can occur when high levels of overtime continue for extended periods, employers should regularly monitor overtime and absences. Employers also must understand the workload variations and take steps to improve the accuracy of demand forecasts. Periodically, HR professionals should review the organization's overtime distribution policies to make sure they are working properly.
See Practicing the Discipline of Workforce Planning. It is important to keep track of both overall averages and individual overtime hours. If the average overtime at a facility exceeds 10 hours a week, employers should determine whether it is expected to continue. If so, they should then evaluate the need to hire additional staff.
In cases of very high overtime more than 20 hours a week , HR professionals may want to consider tactics to reduce the overtime burden, such as new shift schedules or temporary workers.
Another consideration is the consistency of overtime at the facility. Even with low to moderate amounts of overtime less than 10 hours a week , it is possible to create an overtime-dependent workforce with steady overtime.
Ideally, overtime other than that built into the work schedule should drop to zero from time to time. Even when overtime levels are reasonable, there can be wide variations among individual employees.
It is not uncommon to find that 20 percent of the workers are doing 80 percent of the overtime. This is okay as long as the amounts are not excessive or long term.
If a few people are working too much overtime, employers should consider changing the overtime distribution policies. Some companies put a ceiling on the number of hours employees can work in a week, month or year.
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