State and federal laws regarding payment of wages require employers to pay employees in specific ways. Generally speaking, employers must pay at least the mandated state or federal minimum wage (whichever is higher). They must also pay most employees for overtime – usually time worked in excess of forty hours in one week. In addition, many employers must give employees specified number of breaks during a given workday.
Salaried or “exempt” employees are those who are paid a fixed salary regardless of the number of hours it takes them to perform their job. The salaried employee gets the same amount of money for a sixty-hour workweek that he or she gets for a forty-hour workweek. In theory, a salaried employee would get the same amount of money for a twenty-hour workweek.[1]
Most FLSA lawsuits are about whether or not a worker designated by the employer as “salaried” or “exempt” should be designated that way. Simply because an employer has designated someone as a “salaried” or “exempt” employee does not necessarily mean that the employee is ineligible for overtime. There are many regulations and court decisions that explore the question of when an employee is eligible for overtime, and those questions are very fact-specific.
In most cases, it is unlawful for an employer to give “comp time” instead of overtime, or to allow or encourage employees to work “off the clock” to avoid overtime.
[1]For years there have been whispered rumors about salaried employees who work fewer than 40 hours a week. No one has been able to prove the existence of these mythic creatures (at least outside of county government) – kind of like Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster.
Learn more by reading my Secret Employee Handbook. It is free, just click the link and provide the requested information. If you want a paper copy, call or email my office.