Wage and Hour Claims

You were hired. You worked hard. You deserve to be paid.
Simple, right? Not always.

If you have been forced to work off the clock and go unpaid, or work overtime without compensation, contact O'Malley & Langan for a free legal consultation. We'll do everything we can to make sure your employer is held responsible for treating you unfairly and get you the compensation you deserve.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ("FLSA") is a federal law governing wages and hours of employees, specifically minimum wages and overtime compensation. Under this law, employers must pay employees overtime compensation at the rate of 1.5 times their regular hourly wages for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week, in most situations. The FLSA provides that employees may sue to enforce these provisions, and may seek to recover all unpaid overtime compensation, an equal amount of liquidated damages and attorneys' fees. Occasionally, when pursuing a wage and hour claim for a single worker does not make economic sense – i.e. the potential recovery does not justify the costs and risks of litigation – some people file a class action suit instead. This allows hundreds or thousands of similarly treated workers to sue an offending employer in one proceeding.

Numerous exemptions remove certain types of employees from the specified requirements of the FLSA. The most common one is for white-collar workers. Other exemptions apply to workers including commissioned salespeople, agricultural workers, engineers, creative professionals and highly-paid workers.

Section 13(a)(l) of the FLSA exempts executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees from minimum wage and overtime requirements, provided they meet certain tests regarding job duties and are compensated "on a salary basis" at not less than stated amounts. Subject to certain exceptions set forth in the regulations, in order to be considered "salaried", employees must receive their full salary for any workweek in which they perform any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked. This rule applies to each exemption that has a salary requirement.

The Executive Exemption applies to employees who have management as their primary duty; who direct the work of two or more full-time employees; who have the authority to hire and fire or make recommendations regarding decisions affecting the employment status of others; who regularly exercise a high degree of independent judgement in their work; who receive a salary which meets the requirements of the exemption; and who do not devote more than 20% of their time to non-management functions (40% in retail and service establishments).

The Administrative Exemption applies to employees who perform office or non-manual work that is directly related to the management policies or general business operations of their employer or their employer's customers, or perform such functions in the administration of an educational establishment; who regularly exercise discretion and judgement in their work; who either assist a proprietor or executive, perform specialized or technical work, or execute special assignments; who receive a salary which meets the requirements of the exemption; and who do not devote more than 20% of their time to work other than that described above (40% in retail and service establishments).

The Professional Exemption applies to employees who perform work requiring advanced knowledge and education, work in an artistic field that is original and creative, work as a teacher, or work as a computer system analyst, programmer, software engineer, or similarly skilled worker in the computer software field; who regularly exercise discretion and judgement; who perform work which is intellectual and varied in character, the accomplishment of which cannot be standardized as to time; who receive a salary which meets the requirements of the exemption (except doctors, lawyers, teachers and certain computer occupations); and who do not devote more than 20% of their time to work other than that described above.

The Outside Sales Exemption applies to employees who engage in making sales or obtaining orders away from their employer's place of business and who do not devote more than 20% of the hours worked by non-exempt employees of the employer to work other than the making of such sales.

At O'Malley & Langan, we would be privileged to represent you.