Minimum Wage and Overtime Pay Law: Your Rights to Compensation as an Employee.

            Did you know that your employer is required by law to pay you a federally mandated minimum wage?  Although there is presently legislation before Congress to increase the federal minimum wage by 35 % incrementally to $9.80 per hour, the current federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour for all employees, subject to very narrow exceptions.  For instance, under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) – which governs minimum wage and overtime pay – employees under the age of twenty (20) may be paid $4.25 per hour for the first ninety (90) calendar days on the job.

            Likewise, under the FLSA federal overtime pay laws your employer must pay you time and a half for any hours worked over forty in one week.  Thus, if you make $10.00 per hour, work fifty-five (55) hours in a week, and your employer is subject to the FLSA, you are entitled to pre-tax compensation of $625.00.  This figure is reached by multiplying the initial forty (40) hours worked by your regular rate of pay: $10.00 per hour.  For those forty (40) hours worked you are entitled to $400.00.  For the remaining fifteen (15) hours worked, you are entitled to the time and a half overtime pay of $15.00 per hour.  For those fifteen (15) hours worked your employer must compensate you $225.00 in overtime pay.  Therefore, if you are an employee whose regular rate of pay is $10.00 per hour, and you work fifty-five (55) hours in a single week, thus accumulating fifteen (15) hours in overtime pay, the FLSA requires your employer to pay you $625.00 for those fifty-five (55) hours.  Subject to narrow exceptions and “exemptions” – which will be addressed in later blogs – an employer must comply with the FLSA minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.

            An employer exposes itself to liability when it is subject to the FLSA and fails to comply with the law’s minimum wage and overtime pay provisions.  If your employer refuses or neglects to provide minimum wage or overtime pay you have recourse.  There are many recent examples in the U.S. of mistreated employees coming forward and demanding they be paid “back pay” for the hours they worked at a rate below minimum wage or for hours they worked at “straight pay” when they had worked more than forty (40) hours in a week. 

            For instance, since 2008, 1,800 Virginia construction workers have recovered more than $1.6 million dollars in back wages.  Most common among the violations cited against the construction company employers were the employers’ failure to account for all hours worked by the employee, refusing or failing to the employees with overtime pay as discussed above, and paying rates that result in compensation below the federal minimum wage.  It is also worth noting that employers were deemed to be in violation of FLSA minimum wage and overtime pay laws where workers were purposely misclassified as “independent contractors” to circumvent the wage laws.  To be sure, employers in the U.S. construction industry are considered by the U.S. Department of Labor to be some of the most common violators of the FLSA wage and hour laws. 

            But the construction industry is not alone.  Recent targets of FLSA lawsuits and Labor Department investigations include restaurants, institutions of higher education, lawn care companies, airlines, and even day care facilities.  In 2011, Louisiana day care facilities were forced to provide employees $47,673 in back pay.  Two Texas restaurants recently paid $73,000 to current and former employees in back pay and another paid $31,486.  A small lawn care company recently settled its minimum wage and overtime pay violations for $47,000.  It was determined that the employer routinely misclassified employees as independent contractors rather than regular employees.  A representative of the U.S. Department of Labor noted that “[t]he employees were paid straight time for all hours worked instead of time and one half of their regular rate for hours worked over [forty] in a week as required by the [FLSA].”  Finally, a Louisiana seafood processor paid $52,750 in minimum and overtime back wages to seafood processing employees.

            As these examples illustrate, violations of the federal minimum wage and overtime pay laws are common.  It is similarly common for an employee to be oblivious to the fact that he or she is entitled under the FLSA to more pay than they receive for their work.  If you or someone you know is being paid less than minimum wage, not being paid at least time and a half for any hours worked over forty (40) in a week, or both, you most likely are entitled to recover back pay from your employer.  If you determine that you are entitled to back pay for your employer’s failure to pay you minimum wage or overtime pay, exercising your right to recover back pay under the FLSA is a “protected” act.  This means that your employer may not retaliate against you by firing you for seeking back pay or by exposing you to a hostile work environment in retaliation for exercising your FLSA rights. 

            The FLSA provides that attorney fees to recover your back pay may be paid by the violating employer.  In addition, if your employers’ violations were “willful” or intentional, you may are entitled to double your accumulated back pay.  Stand up for your rights under the FLSA.  If you believe you have been the victim of FLSA violations as described above, contact an attorney experienced in the FLSA and general labor matters.