Posts Tagged ‘ Overtime ’

Overtime Pay: How do I Know if my Employer Owes me Money?

October 5th, 2009. By Kristine B

Yeah, it sounds like a bad Whitney Houston flashback…”How will I know if he…” Whoa there—back on topic. Overtime pay? Good question. So that’s the focus of this week’s Pleading Ignorance.

If you’ve opened a newspaper lately—or looked at virtually any news website including our own recent post on 61 companies with OT pay issues—you’ll know one of the major issues in US courts right now is Overtime Pay—or more aptly, missing overtime pay from a lot of folks’ paychecks. What you might not have known is that overtime laws in the US are not as clear-cut as many people think. In fact, if you’re not getting overtime pay there’s still a chance you should be. How’s that? Read on…

Overtime in a Nutshell

Basically, overtime occurs when a person works more than a set amount of time either daily (over 8 hours in a day), or weekly (over 40 hours in a week). Overtime is regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and by state laws. When both the state and the FLSA cover overtime, employers must go with whichever one holds the employer to the highest standards—essentially meaning whichever one provides the most pay to the employee (that’s good news for the employee).

When an employee works more than 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week—and let’s be honest, who hasn’t worked that much at some point—the employee is supposed to get 1.5 times her regular wage (that’s the “time and a half” everyone’s always talking about).

So, let’s say an employee makes $10 an hour and works 44 hours in a week. The employee should be paid $10 for the first 40 hours and $15 for the additional 4 hours.

Seems straightforward, no? But it’s not, because not everyone is eligible for overtime pay and that is where things can get kind of tricky, to put it mildly.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FLSA, Overtime, Overtime Pay, Pleading Ignorance
Posted in Employment, Pleading Ignorance | 168 Comments »

Steve Poizner: CA has “extreme labor laws”…huh?

September 28th, 2009. By AbiK

That was a quote taken from potential California gubernatorial candidate (and state Insurance Commissioner) Steve Poizner at the California Republican State Convention on Sept. 26th, as reported on in the Los Angeles Times.

Extreme? How you ask? Well, Poizner seems to think that having California labor laws that require overtime pay to kick in after 8 hours are worked in a given day is a bit extreme. He points out that “almost every other state” only requires overtime to kick in after a full 40-hour week has been worked.

Here’s the part I find interesting though—I’ll let you read the excerpt first:

Third part of my plan is to align our labor laws with the rest of the country. Now, I’ve been an employer; a lot of you have hired folks, a lot of you care about workers just as much as anybody. Why does California have to have extreme labor laws that make us stick out like a sore thumb?  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: California labor law, California Overtime, Overtime
Posted in Emerging Issues | No Comments »

Unpaid Overtime: Wet Seal hits rewind & plays it again?

August 31st, 2009. By AbiK

Overtime pay lawsuits are a big topic at LawyersAndSettlements.com—we report a lot on unpaid overtime settlements. So much, in fact, that it can take some effort to keep track of it all. Case in point, our recent post on 61 companies that have had overtime lawsuits; the post was only about overtime pay and it only listed a handful of ’em. 

That’s when the recent developments at Wet Seal caught my eye. You’ve probably passed a Wet Seal in the shopping mall—or perhaps you even shop there. You can even get the t-shirt shown here at Wet Seal, and you’ve got to appreciate the irony on that one (btw, for those who care, it’s currently $9.90, BOGO 50% off). They’re all about the teen and twenty-something set, which is basically what their on-the-floor labor force is about as well. 

Young though they may be, they’re apparently no fools, and some have gone after Wet Seal for Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Overtime, wet seal
Posted in Employment | No Comments »

Top 3 Problems with Overtime Pay

August 11th, 2009. By AbiK

So, you think everything’s on the up and up when you and your employer make a little agreement on how you’ll be paid for overtime. Usually, everything is on the up and up. But when it comes to exactly how overtime pay is paid out, things can get a little sticky. Here, 3 tricky examples of when overtime pay agreements may seem legitimate in your eyes and your employer’s, but not to the federal government. In this case, big brother’s watching, and it’s a good thing…

1. Fixed Sum for Varying Amounts of Overtime

Any time there’s an agreement for a lump sum to be paid for work performed during overtime hours without regard to the number fo overtime hours worked, it does not qualify as overtime pay—even if the lump sum amount is equal to or greater than the amount of overtime that would be paid on a per-hour basis. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FLSA, Overtime
Posted in Employment | No Comments »

61 Companies with Wage & Hour Overtime Pay Issues

August 7th, 2009. By AbiK

And that’s the tip of the iceberg—the list below are companies that have either had claims brought against them for FSLA overtime pay issues or have actually settled with claimants in regard to overtime pay. The list itself, compiled from LawyersandSettlements.com archives, covers 2003-present.

But the 5th Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, published by Seyfarth Shaw back in January, also reported that wage and hour class actions in 2008 for the top ten private settlements entered into or paid totaled $252.7 million. No small chunk of change—and that was just 2008, just the top TEN.

So if you’re thinking that working overtime without pay is just something you have to put up with for the privilege of having a job–or that it doesn’t happen too often, guess again. And if you think you might be in such a situation, you might want to talk to a lawyer.

61 Companies…

Abercrombie & Fitch ($2 million settlement)

Activision Inc.

ADT Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FLSA, Overtime
Posted in Emerging Issues | 1 Comment »