Many employees aren't aware that the companies they work for are violating overtime labor laws using various methods. With a few exceptions (such as outside salespeople), in California, a company is required to pay overtime for employees who work over eight hours per day, or 40 hours per week, or who work seven days in a row.
The labor laws for overtime pay can be murky at times depending on the industry or job you are in. Most overtime violations are in one of three categories: 1. misclassifying employees as exempt from overtime pay; 2. not counting the total number of hours worked, or 3. miscalculating overtime pay.
The most common violation involves employers' failure to pay overtime by misclassifiying salaried employees as independent contractors. Although employees are entitled to overtime if they work 40 hours or more per week, contractors aren't. In other situaions, salaried employees who are IT help-desk specialists, adminstrative workers or assistment managers are labeled as exempt even though their job responsibilities deem them eligliable for overtime pay. For example, an assistant manager can only be classified with “executive exemption” if the manager's main job is management, if s/he regularly supervises two or more full-time employees and is also involved in the hiring, or firing of staff. If these criteria don't apply, then the assistant manager is entitled to overtime pay. …show more content…
Some employers dock pay by claiming an employee had poor work quality or low productivity. Legally, the employer must pay every employee the same minimum salary every work. Another way to reduce overtime pay is to not compensate employees who do additional work at home using remote computer access. If an hourly employee pucnhes a time clock, but works for the company before clocking in or after clocking out, the employee must compensate the worker for the extra