Unpaid Wage and Overtime Law
Unpaid Wage and Overtime Law
The
FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) is the Federal law, sometimes called the
overtime law, insures that wages are paid for all hours worked and that all
overtime hours, overtime pay and collected unpaid overtime due is paid to wage
earners. In many instances, overtime pay will go unpaid for a variety of
reasons. Each overtime pay and unpaid overtime case is different and these
facts will affect the way the overtime laws are applied.
Certain employees
are exempt from the FLSA. An exempt employee is one that is not able to receive
overtime pay for hours worked over 40 hours per week. In general, most exempt
employees are salaried and fit into the following three categories:
administrative, executive and professional.
Administrative
employees are generally exempt from overtime pay when their primary duty
involves office work directly related to management policies or general
business operations of it they are performing work in educational
administration in which work is directly related to academic instruction. There
are instances where the employer has misclassified an employee as an
administrative employee. If you have been misclassified you may be eligible for
overtime pay.
Executive
employees are generally exempt. If an employee regularly directs the work of
two or more other employees, management is their primary duty, has the
authority to hire and fire and is paid on a salary basis, then the employee is
considered an executive employee.
Professional
employees are generally exempt from overtime pay. If the employee’s primary
work duty requires advanced knowledge for which extensive education is
required, the use of creativity and originality is required when dealing in an
artistic field, teaching in an academic institution, or specialized knowledge
in computer systems analysis and programming; the employee is a professional.
Employers do
mischaracterize employees as exempt employees. Employers also identify certain
workers as independent contractors when in reality they are employees. An
independent contractor is exempt under the overtime laws. An independent
contractor is a person whose work arrangement with a company meet the
definition of independent contractor under the law. Generally, people who can
works for more than one company and who control their work in almost all
respects will be considered independent contractors. If a company exercises too
much control over how a person performs their job (including setting prices and
heavily restricting or eliminating decision-making authority, then the person
will probably be classified as an "employee" who would be entitled to
overtime.
If you do not
follow within these exemptions and are not being paid overtime, then your
employer may be in violation of the law. In Connecticut, employers must comply
with the Fair Labor Standards Act and Connecticut state law. In Connecticut,
non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40
in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rate of
pay.
A two year statute
of limitations applies to unpaid overtime and wage claims under Connecticut
law. Under Federal law, the statute of limitation is two years with one
important exception. If the employer recklessly disregarded or willfully
violated the law, the statute of limitations is three years. Attorneys’ fees
and court costs are recoverable when successfully proving an unpaid overtime or
wage legal claim. Liquidated damages (the doubling of the improperly unpaid
wages) are also available unless the employer can prove that it had a good
faith belief that it was following the law and that it had reasonable grounds for
believing it was complying.