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Jacoby & Meyers is currently representing employees of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in lawsuits involving Enterprise's failure to pay overtime to Assistant Branch Managers. Click here to read more.

Unpaid Overtime

Wage and Hour Attorneys

Federal law called the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets wage and hour standards, including standards for overtime wages. Unfortunately, many employers do not comply with these laws, leaving employees underpaid for their time. If you are one of the thousands of workers around the country who has been cheated out of overtime pay, you may feel like you will never see the money you have earned. Cheating employees out of overtime pay is against the law and you may be entitled to compensation for the wages owed to you plus punitive damages, but time limits apply and you must take action quickly.

Overtime requirements

Overtime is any work performed in excess of 40 hours during one seven day period. The FLSA requires employers to pay one and a half times your normal hourly rate for all overtime hours worked.

For example, if your normal hourly wage is $7.50 and you work a 46 hour week, you are entitled to $7.50 per hour for the first 40 hours ($300) and $11.25 per hour for the six hours of overtime ($67.50), totaling $367.50.

Many employees who are paid a salary or piece rate are also entitled to overtime pay. Learn more about calculating overtime pay by reading our Calculating Overtime page.

Common ways that companies cheat employees out of overtime pay

Few employers are bold enough to simply refuse to pay the overtime pay they owe you. Instead, most look for ways to convince you that they do not owe you overtime pay, or use complicated pay schedules to obscure how they are cheating you. Common methods of cheating workers out of overtime pay include:

Claiming that you did not get advance permission to work overtime
Misclassifying you as an employee who is exempt from overtime, such as a manager
Misclassifying you as independent contractor
Carrying overtime hours over into the next work week
Averaging hours for a two week pay period
Coercing you to work off the clock
Requiring you to perform tasks before clocking in or after clocking out such as opening, preparation, clean up, or closing activities
Automatically deducting time for lunch and breaks
Refusing to pay for breaks which are less than 30 minutes or combining the time taken in short breaks to total 30 minutes or more
Refusing to pay for restrictive on-call time or travel time
Falsifying time sheets

Learn more about misclassifying employees as exempt by reading our Overtime Exemptions page.

If your employer has cheated you out of overtime pay, please email us or call a wage and hour attorney at Jacoby & Meyers at 1-800-411-4LAW.

Jacoby

Jacoby & Meyers has offices and attorneys throughout the United States, with regional offices in Southern California, Arizona, and New York.