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WAGE
AND OVERTIME CLAIMS
Overtime claims or lawsuits can be filed by employees
who are denied overtime wages in violation of the
provisions contained in the United States Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938. This federal law provides minimum
wage, overtime, and child labor standards. This law is
enforced by the Department of Labor's Employment
Standards Administration.
Overtime claims are possible when an employee eligible
for overtime wages is denied fair compensation.
Employees are eligible for overtime pay when they work
more than forty hours in a work week. Overtime pay is
defined as one and a half times an employee's normal
hourly wage.
Generally, every employee who makes less than $455 per
week or $23,660 annually is eligible for overtime pay
and may file an overtime lawsuit if they do not receive
this compensation. Overtime laws were revised in August
of 2004 increasing this minimum earning wage to cover
hundreds of thousands of employees in low-wage
industries such as agriculture, garment manufacturing,
health care, day care, restaurant work, janitorial
services, and temp workers.
In addition to low wage workers, all blue collar
employees, law enforcement officials, public services
workers, and first responders are eligible for overtime
pay, and can file an overtime lawsuit if these wages are
unlawfully denied. Also, many “white collar” jobs are
now covered under the law, including certain
commissioned salesman, stock brokers, mortgage and loan
officers, bank employees, financial advisors, software
and computer engineers, technology workers, and the
like.
Under federal law, there are certain employees who are
not eligible to receive overtime pay, and are therefore
not eligible to file an overtime lawsuit. These
employees include anyone who makes more than $455 per
week in the following positions: executive,
administrative, professional, computer, and outside
sales. There are a number of difficult tests these
employees must pass, however, in order to be exempt from
overtime wages. These tests, all outlined by federal
law, were made stricter by the 2004 amendments to the
law. Despite the stricter regulations, employers,
including many of the nation’s largest, continue to
violate overtime law through the improper classification
of employees as exempt.
If an employee believes they might be eligible for
overtime, they can obtain an attorney and file a private
lawsuit. Or they can submit a claim to the Department of
Labor, who will investigate violations of overtime law.
In 2003, the Department investigated 40,000 cases of
employer overtime law violation which led to more than
$212 million dollars in back wage collection. Generally,
an overtime lawsuit or complaint must be filed within
two years of the violation. If an employer willfully
violated the law, however, the employee is entitled to
collect three years of back overtime pay.
In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars in
civil overtime lawsuit damages have been awarded to
victims of overtime law violations. Numerous large class
action overtime lawsuits have been filed and
successfully litigated against major companies such as
Farmer's Insurance, Bank of America, Starbucks,
Wal-Mart, Sears Roebuck, Radio Shack, Merrill Lynch,
Wells Fargo, UBS Financial Services, CitiGroup, Morgan
Stanley, IBM, Computer Sciences, Electronic Arts,
Seibel, Kaiser Permanente, American Automobile Club,
UPS, 24 Hour Fitness, and many others. Class action
overtime lawsuits are highly effective tools to combat
large-scale overtime law violations. In 2006 alone,
class action overtime payouts topped $500 million
dollars.
For more information about overtime rights for specific
jobs and industries, go to the Department of Labor
here.
If you believe you are the victim of overtime law
violations, you might be entitled to compensation for
back wages and should consider pursuing a claim. To
discover what your legal rights and options are, contact
one of our attorneys here.
Our firm is currently
pursuing overtime claims against Silverleaf Resorts,
Inc., a vacation
resort operator with properties in Georgia, Arkansas,
Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New York,
Texas, Florida, Massachusetts and Missouri. If you are
current or former employee of Silverleaf Resorts, Inc.
and believe you are owed compensation for unpaid
overtime, please
contact us.
Our firm is also currently
investigating potential overtime claims against The Pep
Boys, Inc. on behalf of automobile mechanics, sales and
service managers nationwide.
If you are a current or former mechanic or manager at Pep Boys and
believe you are owed compensation for unpaid overtime,
please
contact us.
© 2008
JAY D. BROWNSTEIN
BROWNSTEIN NGUYEN & LITTLE LLP
2010 Montreal Road
Tucker, GA 30084
(770) 458-9060
All
rights reserved.
*Brownstein
Nguyen & Little LLP, with offices in Atlanta, Tucker
and Augusta, Georgia, represents clients in many types of
employment cases including race, age and sex
discrimination, wage and hour cases, trade secret,
employment agreements, severance packages, whistleblower
and general employee litigation. This article contains general advice which may or may
not apply to your particular situation. For specific
legal advice concerning your case, consult a qualified
employment attorney.
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