Friday, November 30, 2007

Welcome To The Overtime Law Blogspot!

Your No.1 Resource for overtime law news, overtime law information, overtime law lawyers, and overtime law lawsuits.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

What Is Overtime?

Report Unpaid Overtime

Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. An employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required under federal and/or state overtime law to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work.

Employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must generally receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek of at least one and one-half times their regular rates of pay. Some states also have enacted overtime laws. Where an employee is subject to both the state and federal overtime law, the employee is generally entitled to overtime according to the higher standard (i.e., the overtime law standard that will provide the higher rate of pay).

Report Unpaid Overtime

Monday, November 19, 2007

How Is Overtime Pay Calculated?

Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the FLSA 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 rates of pay.

An employee's workweek under federal overtime law is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours -- seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees under federal overtime law. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted under federal overtime law. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned.

An employee's regular rate of pay under federal overtime law includes all remuneration for employment except certain payments excluded by the FLSA itself. Payments which are not part of the regular rate under federal overtime law include pay for expenses incurred on the employer's behalf, premium payments for overtime work or the true premiums paid for work on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, discretionary bonuses, gifts and payments in the nature of gifts on special occasions, and payments for occasional periods when no work is performed due to vacation, holidays, or illness. The regular rate of pay cannot be less than the minimum wage under federal overtime law.

Earnings for overtime law purposes may be determined on a piece-rate, salary, commission, or some other basis, but in all such cases the overtime pay due must be computed on the basis of the average hourly rate derived from such earnings. This is calculated by dividing the total pay for employment (except for the statutory exclusions noted above) in any workweek by the total number of hours actually worked.