Fair Labor Standards Act

Federal Overtime Law

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes guidelines for overtime, minimum wage and other employment provisions. The FLSA affects employees in the private sector, as well as workers in federal, state and local governments.

Unless exempt, employees should receive overtime pay at a rate no less than time-and-a-half their regular rate for every hour worked in excess of 40 in a single workweek. The FLSA defines a workweek as a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours, or seven consecutive 24-hour periods. A workweek does not have to coincide with a calendar week; the workweek may begin on any day, at any time. Different groups of employees may have different defined workweeks. Employers are not allowed to average hours over two or more workweeks.

If you have been denied overtime pay, you may have legal recourse under the FLSA. Fill out our free case evaluation form to find out if you are eligible to collect unpaid overtime.

Who is Covered under the FLSA?

The FLSA covers workers in certain enterprises, regardless of the job tasks they carry out. In most cases, employees in the following enterprises are covered by the FLSA:

• A hospital or similar institution
• Learning institutions, including pre-school, elementary school, high school, college and schools for the disabled
• A local, state or federal government agency
• A company with a yearly dollar volume of sales or receipts equaling at least $500,000

Employees of business that do not have an annual dollar volume of at least $500,000 may still be covered under the FLSA if they are engaged in interstate commerce, the production of goods for commerce, or a closely related process or occupation which is directly essential to such production.

Hours Worked under the FLSA

The FLSA states that non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a single workweek. However, some employers ignore certain job tasks when counting an employee’s total hours. Under the FLSA, the following activities should be counted as compensable work time:

• Time spent waiting for work
• Certain on-call time
• Rest and meal periods last between 5 and 20 minutes
• Training, lectures, and meetings
• Travel time

Problems typically arise when employers do not consider these tasks as compensable time. For instance, a worker who spends their lunch break eating at their desk and performing work should be paid for this time. The worker has not been completely relieved from duty; therefore, this time must be counted as work hours.

Employer Record Keeping

The FLSA requires employers to keep certain records for employees who are eligible for overtime pay. The FLSA mandates that these records contain accurate information on certain identifying information about the worker and data on their hours worked and wages earned. Some basic information employers must keep on record include:

• Employee’s full name, address and social security number
• Hours worked each day
• Total hours worked for each workweek
• Total overtime earnings for each workweek
• Time and day the workweek begins
• Total wages paid each pay period
• Date of payment and period covered by the payment

Many employers fail to keep employee records and therefore have trouble defending themselves in an overtime lawsuit. In this case, the court will base the amount of back pay due to the employee by the worker’s own estimation.

If you work more than 40 hours a week without receiving overtime pay, you may be eligible for an overtime lawsuit. Contact our overtime lawyers today to find out how you can recover unpaid overtime.