With each
passing year, the numbers of wage and hour violation cases are
increasing. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), it is
mandatory for employers to pay their employees correctly, based on
the numbers of hours worked. In case your employer fails to comply
with the FLSA guidelines, you have the right to file a legal claim
with the assiatance of unpaid overtime lawyers.
To have a
better understanding of the wage and hour violations and to ensure
that you don’t become a victim, you should go through the
information given below.
- Many employers deliberately misclassify their workers as exempt from overtime and claim they are salaried. However, it is necessary for employers to make sure that the job duties of workers is in accordance with one of the exemptions from overtime, before they can be classified as exempt. The employer must prove the exemption and everyone has a different threshold to meet. Don’t let the employer trick you into thinking you are salaried and not entitled to overtime – in fact, you may very well still be entitled to it.
- There are certain situations in which employers need to pay for the travel time, but unfortunately, not many employers bother about it. If an employee has been asked to come back at work because of an urgent work, travel time may be compensable in such situations. There are also few other situations when workers are entitled to receive compensation for the travel time. Sometimes going to the first or last job site is not compensable, but traveling to other sites between the first and last generally is.
- Many employers also take advantage of unpaid breaks. According to FLSA, any break under 20 minutes should be paid. For meal breaks the employee is entitled to a free uninterrupted meal time. If the employer doesn’t pay for meal time, but doesn’t relieve the employee fully from their duties, the employee may be entitled to overtime.
- Not paying overtime to employees is one of the most crucial wage and hour violation mistakes. However, some of them do it deliberately while others do it unintentionally. Generally, it is done to save money so the owners make more, the shareholders make more or the managers receive a bigger bonus by keeping time under control.
