Work Environment Rights For The Novice

Your manager is furtively grinning. He understands elements you don't know about your work environment rights. Also, what you don't think about those rights can demolish your career or even get you terminated.

What if you are not paid for your work at office? What should you do? Where can you go in order to get the appropriate salary? If you are worried from all these concerns, you may go for an “Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit”.

Thus, it is necessary to understand these important rights. It will assist you to wipe that grin appropriate off his face. Here are 10 things you should know.

• Discuss The Working Condition With Co-Worker

You have the privilege to examine working conditions with co-workers. The National Labor Relations Act or NLRA ensures most non-supervisory employees in the private sector the right to discuss working conditions with co-workers. Does your organization attempt to keep you from comparing compensations or advantages with co-workers? They might infringe the law.

On the off chance that you have an agreement or arrangement saying you can't examine wages and advantages with associates, you can document a Charge Against Employer with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

• Read And Get A Copy Of Your Employee Handbook

You should peruse and get a duplicate of your representative handbook. This archive is packed with critical data. A few organizations have workers sign a paper saying they have gotten it, however never give it out. Others keep it locked away. Your book has vital data about segregation, harassment, sick leave, individual leave, and Family and Medical Leave.

• Probably Not An Absolute Contractor

You are presumably not an independent contractor. Your boss may attempt to arrange you as a temporary worker to abstain from paying its share of business duties and sidestep scope under most business laws.

In any case, they likely missed the point. In the event that your organization controls the time, place and style of your work; hires or terminates your partners, does assessments, pays for an excursion or says you can work for them, you are most likely a worker.

• Baptize To Overtime Pay

You might be baptized to overtime pay. Employers use an assortment of traps to abstain from paying additional time. For instance, they may: misclassify you, telling you that you are salaried and in this way absolved; require off-clock work, consolidating excluded and non-absolved obligations; require accessible if the need arises or off-hours work; make you hold up to check in; and imagine not to know you worked through lunch to abstain from paying you.

Unless you are excluded, you are qualified for be paid time and a half for all hours worked more than 40 every week. And if you think you aren't being paid the extra time you're qualified for, you can either file a complaint with the Department of Labor or contact a business legal advisor about documenting a suit for your unpaid extra time.

• An unfriendly workplace is not necessarily illegal

An unfriendly workplace is only illegal if it’s due to some legally-protected status, such as:

• Age
• National origin
• Disability
• Race
• Sex
• Religion
• Taking Family and
• Medical Leave or whistleblowing.

Thus, if you have been subjected to an unlawful antagonistic condition due to a lawfully secured status, make a formal objection to the organization's harassment approach.

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KNOW YOUR RIGHT - OVERTIME LAW AND ITS EXEMPTIONS

Overtime is basically when an employee has to work additional hours than the designated hours of the work. The employers are required to pay for overtime worked by their employees. As per the United States Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the employers violating the overtime law can face overtime lawsuit for unpaid wages. 

• OVERTIME LAWS:

The overtime law states that the employees are to be paid at least the minimum wage for standard hours worked and overtime pay for the extra hours worked. The overtime pay hhs to be one and half times the regular rate of the salary. The standard salary also includes the bonuses and additional benefits and according to that, normal salary is calculated. 

• MINIMIZED LABOR LAWS:
  Sometimes, the employers purposely do not pay the workers to reduce the labor cost. This is considered illegal and it builds grounds for the lawsuit which the employee can pursue if they have been not given:

• minimum wages,
• refusal of overtime wages,
• wrongfully mislead the employee to believe they do not deserve the overtime pay,
• docked the hours worked by the employee to avoid paying them overtime pay.

If the employer violate the overtime laws, then a worker can take legal consultant for deciding the steps he can take for getting the deserving pay. If all the employees in an organization are not getting the overtime pay, then a class-action lawsuit can be filed against the employer for the unfair treatment.

• EXEMPTIONS:
  The exemptions for overtime laws include the workers that fall under the executive and administrative category. There are two aspects that are considered for an employee to get an exemption from overtime law:

Salary Exemption:

• First one is the salary basis in which the employee is paid salary on the basis of the weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis and it is fixed with no deductions because of any reason including the quantity and quality of work.

• The full time employees earning under $47,476 annually will be considered eligible for the overtime pay.

Job Description:

• The second basis for the overtime law exemption is the type of job description an employee has.

• The administrative and executive exemptions are the most common exemptions in the overtime law. The others are more complicated to calculate.

• The executive exemption is given to the employees who have management positions in the business, where they have responsibility of hiring or firing the employees and offer valuable recommendations to the department.

• The type of work performed by the employee regardless of the job description decided whether or not you are an exempt employee. It differs from case to case.

The money that is considered as back pay according to the FLSA is the difference in the money you were to be paid for the overtime hours worked and the wages you were paid. If you file the lawsuit and are successfully able to win the case, then you are entitled to the double the amount of back-pay that you were originally supposed to be paid along with the attorney fees.

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RIGHTS TO KNOW : WHEN ARE YOU ENTITLED TO OVERTIME WAGES?

Have you been conned by your employer and not been paid your rightful wages? Instead of getting the check for overtime, you have got the same wages that you normally get? That could mean that you are getting robbed of your earned pay which you rightfully deserve. If the answer is yes, then you are at the right place. In this article, you will get to learn the overtime laws which every employee should be well aware of in order to know how much overtime pay they have earned. Also, in which instances, they are eligible for the overpay and when they need to hire an overtime attorney for unpaid wages.

OVERTIME PAY:

What is Overtime pay? In order to know what your employer owes you, it is prudent that you learn that the federal law for overtime. The overtime wages required to pay to any worker are under the conditions:

• If the worker is working more than eight hours a day
• If the worker is working more than forty hours a week.
  
  
  
  
  

Which implies that if the worker is working for extra hours, then he would be paid an amount which is ⅕ times what is usually paid to the employee. Though, it is to be made certain that not every worker is not eligible for overtime pay. There are many exemptions to certain job types, in which an employee is not paid their due.

EXEMPTIONS FOR THE OVERPAY:

There are three types of exemptions in which an employer is not suppose to pay for the overtime you put after the regular working hours.

• Administrative exemption: Under this, the employees working in office performing non-manual work which requires discretion, judgement and other administrative work is considered as important to the organization.

• Executive exemption: In this exemption, the employee must either be manager of the business, involved in administrative work of directing the employees, their hiring and firing the staff.

• Professional exemption: Under this, the employee must be graduated in a specialized academic degree, or their work involves artistic or creative sense and they must have  position that requires a use of their knowledge in area of science and learning such as lawyers, teachers, and doctors.

CALCULATING THE REGULAR PAY:

Calculating the regular pay can be tricky. Depending on you hourly rate, the overtime pay can also increase. The following compensation factors can help you in calculating the regular pay:

• Bonuses for the production
• End of the year bonus
• Bonus given with non-discretion
• Total bonuses earned
• Shift differentials
• Wage increases
• Compulsory services tips or gratuities
• Standby pay
• Stipends
  

  

The worker’s regular wages are used for the calculation of the overtime pay. Make sure when you get the overtime check, it is calculated with the above mentioned factors. This will increase your overtime wages substantially. If the employer is giving you the pay for the extra hours based on the regular wages without considering these factors, then you have the right to ask your employer for your rightful earnings. Hire an overtime attorney if you are not getting your deserving wages, keeping in mind the aforementioned points.

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KNOW YOUR RIGHT : GET PAID FOR OVERTIME

Have you been robbed of your rightful wages after working overtime for your employer? And many times been given the answer that you are not eligible for overtime wages? If yes, then it is time you found out what exactly are the laws for the unpaid overtime. It is always assumed that your employer is following the right labor laws, but it is better to be aware in case you are being deceived and engage the services of overtime law firm in case you are unpaid. Following are some of the instances where your boss can trick you into not paying overtime wages:

CALCULATION OF OVERTIME

For calculating the overtime pay, you must first calculate the regular pay. This also includes compensation and bonuses, shift differential, commissions, salary. However the extra benefits such as gifts, reimbursements, or other employee perks. The overtime should be fifty per cent more than your normal wages, i.e. one hundred fifty per cent of your normal wages should be paid to a worker. 

EXEMPT FROM OVERTIME PAY

The eligibility of any worker for overtime is never up to any employer. It depends on the kind of work you do. Many employers wrongfully categorize the worker's profile as a non-exempt to avoid giving them one and half time overtime payment for more than forty hours a week.

WORKING ROUND THE CLOCK

If you are being worked round the clock by your employer, then you should be paid for all the hours you worked. If you are being asked to work from home at night or weekends, then your employer is required to pay you for that time as well.

If you feel that your employer isn't paying you overtime wages and is trying to deceive you, it is time you consulted your lawyer. Your lawyer can help you file a lawsuit and explore the options you can go for.

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Are You Entitled To Overtime Pay? Have A Look At The Laws

Under the FLSA – The fair labor standards act of 1938, you are categorized under overtime if you work more than 40 hours in a week. Federal law was started to make sure that the workers in Americas are paid for the work they do. In USA, overtime lawyers are easily reachable for any exemption from pay.

When it comes to employee pay, FLSA has two major provisions:

Minimum Wage – New York’s minimum wage is about $9.00 per hour and if an employer meets the requirements of federal law, then it is necessary that the employer pays a minimum wage required i.e. $7.25 per hour.

Overtime Wages – The employer is required to pay non-exempt employees’ time and a half the employee’s normal hourly rate for all extra hours worked apart from 40 hours a week.

“The Sweat. The Time. The Devotion. It Pays Off”

There are some issues to be considered when trying to determine whether overtime wages are allocated.

1. Are you an “independent contractor”?

In order to avoid paying overtime, taxes, and other employment benefits, some companies designate the employees as independent contractor, which is often illegal. If you are not an independent contractor then you are entitled to overtime wages.

2. Blue-collar employees and manual laborers are almost always entitled to overtime pay

Manual laborers and “blue-collar” workers are paid for their overtime hours. The employees included in this are electricians, mechanics, iron workers, craftsmen, operating engineers and people who perform production, maintenance, construction etc and other forms of labor.

3. Not all office workers can lawfully be paid a salary

For overtime entitlement, it is mandatory that an employee receives a salary of at least $455/week and have well defined job duties like management and administration. Often, employers often regardless of job duties do not pay overtime and thus violate the act. Even if the employer does this unintentionally, you may be entitled to a full recovery for all overtime hours worked.

When life does not wait, Why should you? Consult an attorney, so that they take action to help get you the promise you deserve and the money you need.

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4 Workplace Rights You Need to Know While Working

Do you know your rights at your workplace? Many employers understand labor law and follow them, but in reality many employers regularly defy employment law. To avoid any critical situation, you need to know what your workplace rights are and be careful that your employee follows it.

1. Your employer can not hold back your paycheck for poor performance: No matter what performance you give, your employer has no right to block your salary. Of course, if you really mess up, if you are not following the policies and giving bad performance, you may be fired after a warning but you might get fired, but you still must be paid for all the hours you worked.

2. You must receive your paycheck on time:  Most state laws say how soon you must receive your paycheck after a pay period ends. In some states, an employer is alleged to pay additional money on top of your waged as penalty if your salary is late.

3. Whether you are eligible for lawyer overtime pay is decided by the government: The federal government has divided the job types into: exempt and nonexempt category. If your job is categorized as non-exempt, your employer must pay you overtime for all hours you work above 40 in a week. Your categorization is also determined by government guidelines.

4. Your employer cannot ask you to work off the clock: If you're a non-exempt employee, you are liable to be paid for all the working hours. You can't give up this right.

If your employer is violating any of the law, the most effective first step is to talk to your manager. You will probably get a better outcome, if you consider an overtime lawyer or some specialized lawyer who deals in such cases.

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Learn How To Fight For Your Rights

All employees are legally entitled to receive their wages and overtime pay in a timely manner. Many employees who have not been paid amounts, feel hesitation to complain because they are concerned about being fired or retaliated against. The wage and overtime laws have built-in protections prohibiting such retaliation.

Consult the Unpaid Wages Attorneys immediately if your employer denies to pay your rightful amount. They will fight for your right to get back the amount that your employer did not pay to you. You will get help to recover your following wages:

• Earned bonus and promised bonus
• Vacation
• Earned wages
• Salary
• Commissions

There are various reasons when an employer refuses to pay an employee:

Simply withholds your payment: Many times, the employer violate to the payment policies of the written employment contract. They try to make fool of you. At this time, you can get help to revive your wages, following the legal procedure.

Denies making your final payment: Once you leave the company, an employer can refuse to pay your last month fees or continuously delay to pay off the rightful amount over and over again. At this moment, you need to take a legal action to get back your payment at the earliest.

Unpaid Overtime Fees: Most of the time, employees have to work under pressure and they have to work extra hours. On the other hand, an employer doesn’t bother to pay them extra. Employees get usual wage amount, deducting the extra amount at the time of the payments. Only a legal advice can help you to come out of the situation.

Does Not Pay On Time: It is a common scenario that the employees don’t get wages on time. The employees believe that they can use their employers to the optimum level. It is a kind of exploitation that can be especially seen in the private sector. It is your right to get your hard earned money at the correct time.

The employment contracts are legal and the employee and  the employer are supposed to adhere to the employment contract strictly. Whatsoever is written into the employment contract should be followed strictly on the side of the employer as well as the employee. A legal action can be taken if anyone tries to violate the contract on the part of the employee and the employer. When the employer refuses to pay his employee, it is called as “unpaid wage”.

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