Contract Workers: Contract workers work according to their contract. They receive payment according to their contract agreement. However, they are not entitled to overtime pay unless otherwise discussed in the employment contract.
What Are Some Examples of Violations of Unpaid Overtime Laws?
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) defines the proper classifications of employees. The FLSA also outlines the rules applying to overtime pay in the workplace.
Under the FLSA, the following are violations of overtime laws:
1. Misclassifying non-exempt employees as exempt employees or contract workers. One of the most common breaches of FLSA laws is misclassifying employees as exempt. An employer may classify a shift supervisor as a manager or support staff as professionals. These employees will not receive overtime pay because they are classified incorrectly.
Employers will misclassify their employees to save money on overtime pay. However, misclassifying employees is a clear violation of the law. Wage and hour laws specifically prevent denying non-exempt employees (those who make less money and support their managers) overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.
2. Paying comp-time instead of overtime. Sometimes employers attempt to get around overtime pay for employees by offering comp-time. Comp-time allows employees to use overtime hours towards paid time off instead of receiving overtime pay. Unpaid overtime, in most circumstances, cannot be paid in comp-time.
3. Paying regular time pay for overtime hours. Some employers will try to pay employees their regular pay rate for overtime hours worked. Employers must pay overtime pay for hours worked over 40 hours per week.
4. Not paying overtime weekly. Many employers pay employees every two weeks or twice a month. An employee may work over 40 hours one week and under 40 hours in the second week of the pay period. Employers may decide to add the time between the two weeks and end up with only 80 hours worked.
This practice is illegal because it denies an employee the overtime earned for one week. Overtime must be calculated every week, no matter how often an employer runs payroll.
Derek Smith
3 min. read
Derek Smith