Every citizen of the United States has some fundamental rights, which
they must be aware of. One such fundament right says that all the
workers must be compensated fairly for their labor. According to this
right, not only do salaried individuals stand to receive their
monthly income, they may also be entitled to receive payment for
extra working hours.
It is of paramount importance that every worker knows what rights are
to protect oneself from being exploited by an unscrupulous employer.
Knowing the law and how it pertains to overtime is essential
otherwise, dishonest employers will find it very easy to trick you
and keep you deprived of your rightful money.
Laws regarding overtime were constituted in the 1930s in order to
protect workers from greedy employers. The economy has come a long
way since then, and with the evolution of the economy some employers
have tried to fairly coincide with the laws, while other evolve to
find ways to deprive employees of the money that this theirs and
feast on it for their own gluttony and greed.
The rules regarding overtime in the US are simple. The Fair Labor
Standards Act says that if someone works beyond forty hours a week,
the worker must be paid overtime, unless they have a lawful exemption
from overtime. If there is an exemption, the employer has the burden
of justifying it and sometimes that is a very complicated road to
hoe.
To calculate the overtime, an employer will have to first calculate a
worker’s standard hourly wage. Beyond 40 hours, workers must be
paid 1.5 times of that standard hourly wage rate. Let us understand
this with an example. If you are an employee who makes twenty dollars
an hour, then according to this fair wages rule, you must be paid
thirty dollars for every single hour beyond standard working period,
which is 40 hours. Sometimes, the worker is also paid things like
night differential or other premiums which must be factored into the
overtime calculus. If it’s not there’s a violation that’s
actionable.
Some professionals are exempted from this privilege. The FLSA has put
a few occupations under the exempted category (meaning people in
those professions do not stand to receive overtime compensation). The
FLSA puts people into this category whose job and work
responsibilities are managerial or executive in nature. Oftentimes,
though, they falsely use this so one must speak to a professional to
understand whether you should be paid overtime. For example, if
you’re an account manager, but no one reports to you, you are
probably are not properly classified as exempt from overtime under
the professional exemption.
Sometimes a job title can be quite vague, which creates a loophole
for companies to take unethical advantage of it. Companies do that by
making employees work for more than standard hours, by making their
job profile look ambiguous and considering them as exempted
employees, even when they are not. If you feel you are being
victimized the same way, you can hire an unpaid overtime lawyer
to claim the unpaid compensation that belongs to you.