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Unpaid Overtime Claims - Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are required to pay overtime to all employees working more than 40 hours per week in most situations. Under FLSA, employers must pay eligible employees who work more than 40 hours in the workweek at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for the overtime hours (hours worked over 40 in a workweek). FLSA defines a workweek as seven consecutive 24-hour periods, or 168 consecutive hours.

If an employee is covered by the FLSA, an employer cannot disregard an employee’s overtime hours, even if the employee agreed to work for a fixed amount of pay, regardless of the number of hours actually worked.  While the method of calculating the overtime due to the employee may vary, the employee is entitled to overtime pay for all hours over 40 worked during any given work week.  The amount of pay an employee is owed can only be determined by knowing the total number of hours actually worked by that employee in each workweek. An employee must be paid for all of the time considered to be hours worked and all time that is hours worked must be counted when determining overtime hours worked.

Under the FLSA, the following categories or classes of workers are automatically eligible for overtime pay, regardless of how much they earn:

• “Blue collar” workers or other manual laborers who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy;
• Police officers, fire fighters, paramedics and other “first responders”;
• Licensed practical nurses; and
• Paralegals.

If you feel you were wrongly denied overtime compensation, you have valuable legal rights. Contact Parker & Waichman, LLP today to have an experienced labor attorney evaluate your case for free.  To request an evaluation simply complete the form on the right of this page or call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).