Basic federal law provides that every worker who is paid hourly is entitled to be paid at least minimum wage (presently $5.15 per hour) for each hour worked. In addition to this, many employees are also entitled to also receive an overtime premium for hours worked in excess of 40 during a workweek. The overtime premium is commonly known as time and one-half of the employees regular rate.
In order to determine if an employee is eligible to receive overtime compensation or even minimum wage, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act classifies employees as either exempt or nonexempt. A common misconception is that because your employer says you are salaried, you are not entitled to overtime. This is false. The law looks to your actual job functions and how you are paid to determine if you are properly classified as exempt.
A second major failing of employers is miscalculating the employee's regular rate of pay. This results in miscalculating the overtime premium and shorting the employee of the rightful amount of overtime pay.
Often, when an employer misclassifies its employees or miscalculates the pay rate, it does so across a broad range of employees. The law allows employees to bring representative actions on behalf of all of the other similarly situated employees.
Damages for violation of the federal wage and hour law include your lost wages for the past 2 or 3 years, potentially doubled and attorney's fees and expenses.
