The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that non-exempt employees receive overtime pay equal to 1.5 x their regular hourly pay for any hours worked over 40 in a week (overtime). This can happen if employees work more than eight hours a day, or more than five days a week. While an employer may require employees to work overtime hours, according to the FLSA the employer must give the employee overtime pay. The FLSA also provides that overtime pay that has not been paid can still be collected up to two years from the date the pay was earned (and up to three years if the employer was consciously violating the law).

(1) Covered Employers

The FLSA’s overtime provisions do not apply to every company. Only companies whose gross receivables exceed $500,000 per year are required to pay overtime.

2) Exempt v. Non-Exempt

Employees An employee is entitled to overtime pay in the first week that he works more than 40 hours. However, the FLSA differentiates between “exempt” employees – employees that are not covered by the law – and “non-exempt” employees who are covered by the law. An employee who is paid by the hour and not by salary, is automatically non-exempt and is entitled to overtime pay for working more than 40 hours in a week. But one must actually be an employee and not an independent contractor (that is you must actually be an employee of the company and not be your own business doing work for the employer).

Generally, high paying executive, professional, or managerial jobs are exempt and therefore cannot get overtime pay. Executives are people who are officers of corporations or have a very high degree of responsibility. Professionals are usually people who have to have special educational achievements like, lawyers, architects, doctors, and teachers.

If you believe you have a claim for unpaid overtime, the attorneys of The White Law Group may be able to help. For a free consultation, please call 312/238-9650.

For more information on The White Law Group’s Vero Beach employment law practice, please visit http://www.wlgattorneys.com/areas-of-practice/labor-and-employment-law/.