Unpaid Overtime

Which Workers Are (and Aren’t) Exempt from Overtime Compensation as a Result of Their Executive Duties

September 18, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asked the timeless literary question, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” Those lines highlight the truth that changing a name or a title does not, by itself, change the named item’s inherent identity and characteristics. This also can be true in employment law where, just because a job title sounds like a managerial role, the reality of the work you do every day may indicate that your job actually is something very different, which can matter a great deal when it comes to overtime compensation. If you have questions about exempt status or possible unpaid overtime, you should take the time to get reliable answers by contacting a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

Recently, this blog looked at the administrative exemption to the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Today, we focus on another exemption that generates disputes with some frequency: the executive exemption. In many instances, these disputes involve managers at retail establishments who spend most of their workdays doing non-managerial work.

Last month, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions guide federal cases in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee) considered one of these matters and ruled for the employer.

When an Employer Can — and Can’t — Use a Statutory Exemption Argument as a Stopper Against an Unpaid Overtime Claim

September 11, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In some ways, wage and hour law can be like the game of bridge. Each has various sets of rules that can layer on top of (or intertwine with) one another. In each setting, the difference between success and defeat often can come down to which side understands, utilizes, and deploys those concepts more effectively. If you have questions about the law of overtime compensation, be sure to get in touch with an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer (who may or may not be able to help you with your bridge game.)

Why do we bring up bridge? In this instance, it’s because some employees of the world’s largest contract bridge league recently scored a win in their unpaid overtime lawsuit.

In 2018, the league reorganized its Field Operations Department, creating four new salaried roles: Area Manager, Mentor, National Tournament Director, and Associate National Tournament Director.

Sovereign Immunity and Successfully Pursuing an Unpaid Overtime Claim Against Your Public Employer in Georgia

August 18, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Sometimes, an unpaid overtime case is relatively straightforward. Other times, though, unpaid overtime cases can involve many layers and complexities, including issues like an employer’s potential immunity from liability. Whether you are an employee or an employer, it is crucially important to understand all of your rights and responsibilities under the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. If you have questions or concerns about those rights or responsibilities, you should seek out knowledgeable answers from an experienced Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer.

If you’re suing a state agency, sovereign immunity may be an argument you encounter. A recent overtime dispute between the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) and state troopers highlights a situation where workers were able to overcome a state agency’s assertion of immunity.

R.J. was one of several hundred men and women hired as state troopers with the Georgia State Patrol between 2014 and 2020. The DPS requires all of its state troopers to attend (and graduate from) a mandatory “trooper school.”

FLSA Exemptions and the Burden of Proof in a Federal Unpaid Overtime Case in Georgia

August 11, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A recent unpaid overtime ruling, while not occurring here in Georgia, is potentially significant to workers and employers here who find themselves embroiled in a dispute regarding the applicability of an exemption to the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The recent case involved the proper burden of proof for proving an overtime exemption. Things like that may sound minute to a layperson, but issues like burdens of proof can swing a success to a defeat or vice versa. Given all the legal details essential to presenting and winning an unpaid overtime case, as well as the high stakes involved, it is worth your while to seek out an experienced Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer to represent you.

The employees were sales representatives working for a food products distributor. The representatives sued the employer for unpaid overtime in violation of the FLSA. The employer countered by asserting that the representatives fell within the “outside sales” exemption, which meant that the employer had no legal obligation to pay overtime compensation.

The workers went to trial in a Maryland federal court and won. The court concluded that the law required the employer to prove the application of the exemption by “clear and convincing evidence,” and that the distributor did not clear that hurdle.

When Tolling Will — and Won’t — Save an Unpaid Overtime Case Filed After the FLSA’s Statute of Limitations Has Elapsed

July 10, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

It’s highly important to recognize all of the procedural demands involved in unpaid overtime cases. This is critical both from the perspective of ensuring that you’ve done everything the rules mandate and also from the perspective of taking proper steps to strengthen your position when the opposing side fails to meet its procedural obligations. Whether you’re a worker pursuing a claim or an employer defending against one, an Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer can help you in all of these regards.

One of the more basic procedural hurdles is the statute of limitations. When it comes to unpaid overtime claims brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act, federal law says the worker generally must do so within two years.

That statute of limitations was at the center of one recent unpaid overtime case upon which the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions directly control federal cases in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama) ruled.

When a Reduction of a Worker’s ‘Regular Rate’ of Pay Crosses from a Permissible Modification to an Illegal Dodge of the Requirements Imposed by the FLSA

May 31, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Employers have several tools at their disposal to cut costs, including the expenses that go with paying their workers. The law gives employers considerable latitude in modifying workers’ pay if those workers have begun putting in longer hours but, as any knowledgeable Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer can tell you, when an employer cuts a worker’s regular rate of pay in an artificial way that’s designed to get around complying with the overtime rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act, that a violation of the law.

One potential way an employer can run afoul of the statute is to create two different “regular” rates of pay, with the goal of using the lesser of the two as the basis for calculating overtime pay, thereby artificially depressing the amount of overtime compensation the workers would receive.

That’s what one security guard alleged in his FLSA lawsuit against his employer. When the guard started his employment, the employer paid him $13 per hour and the guard worked 40-hour weeks.

The Federal Court Procedure for Terminating a FLSA Case Partially Resolved Via Settlement

May 18, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Currently, the law allows restaurant employers to pay employees a base rate below the mandatory minimum wage as long as those workers ultimately end up receiving total compensation that works out to be more than the minimum hourly requirement (which, here in Georgia, is $7.25.) If you find it necessary to pursue this kind of minimum wage lawsuit (or defend against one,) it’s important to recognize the many federal rules of procedure that may play a role in your case. Ensuring that the rules of procedure do not trip up your case (or your defense as an employer) is one area where a skilled Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can be invaluable.

Here’s a recent example from federal court minimum wage action to illustrate what we mean.

The plaintiffs were a group of servers at a high-end restaurant. Their employer charged customers a preset gratuity that it automatically added to diners’ bills and then split those “service charges” among the servers. In addition, the servers also received a base pay of $5.65 per hour.

A New Wage and Hour Ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court and Its Potential Impact on Some High-Earners in Georgia

February 28, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In an important new ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court recently clarified the standards under which a worker does (or does not) qualify as a salaried exempt employee for purposes of overtime compensation. The 6-3 decision in favor of an oil rig worker clarifies that just because an employee earns a very high income, that does not automatically mean that he/she is an exempt employee. Regardless of how much you make, if you think that you meet the legal standards for a non-exempt employee, then you may be entitled to overtime pay and if your employer didn’t compensate you accordingly, you potentially can, with the aid of the right Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer, win compensation in a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit.

The worker, M.H., worked as a tool pusher on an offshore oil rig. That job typically entailed the employee working 12-14 hours per day, seven days per week for a stint of four weeks, followed by four weeks off. The employer paid the pusher a daily rate of $963. All totaled, the worker earned more than $200,000 annually.

Neither the worker nor the employer argued that 29 CFR 541.604(b) applied to the pusher’s circumstance. That’s the federal regulation that says that if a worker receives extra pay based on his/her work hours, he/she can still be an exempt employee so long as there was a “reasonable relationship” between the worker’s periodic salary and the amount the worker actually earned each period.

An FLSA Class Action, Collective Action, or Individual Action: Which One Makes the Most Sense for My Unpaid Overtime Claim?

February 7, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

If your employer has denied you overtime pay that you earned, you potentially have several possible legal options. You can seek compensation individually, you can initiate a class action, or you can pursue a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Determining which avenue makes the most sense can be a complicated and nuanced legal determination, so make sure you get the advice you need from an experienced Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer before you start.

Earlier this month, one north Georgia nurse achieved an important success in her unpaid overtime case, successfully persuading the federal district court in Atlanta to approve her collective action.

The nurse was a Gwinnett County woman who worked as a “medical management nurse” for a major insurance company. Her main duty (along with the primary duty of several colleagues with various titles) centered on performing medical necessity reviews for the employer. That entailed “reviewing medical authorization requests submitted by healthcare providers against pre-determined guidelines and criteria for insurance coverage.”

What Happens if My Employer Takes an Automatic Pay Deduction for Meal Breaks But I Did Not Actually Get My Break?

January 24, 2023 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In wage and hour law, as with any area of the law, there are issues that arise with elevated frequency at certain moments in time. (For example, a few years ago the courts saw a flurry of employee-versus-independent-contractor misclassification cases involving exotic dancers.) More recently, an issue before multiple different courts involves employers taking automatic meal-break deductions, regardless of whether the workers got their full break (or any break at all) or not. When this happens, it may constitute a Fair Labor Standards Act violation for which you may be entitled to compensation. An experienced Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer can tell you more about whether your situation represents a violation of the law.

One of the most recent incidents occurred to our north, where Ohio workers initiated a class action against their employer, a medical company that owns hospitals, rehab centers, and clinics. According to the workers, the employer had a practice of automatically deducting 1/2 hour from their hours to account for each worker’s meal break. The alleged problem was, however, that the realities of the workplace (especially during periods of understaffing) meant that workers often had to work through lunch or were able only to take abbreviated meal breaks. Even when those circumstances arose, the employer still took the automatic 30-minute deduction, according to the complaint.

On that basis, the workers alleged that the employer violated the FLSA by failing to pay overtime wages the workers earned. The class that the workers proposed was an expansive one; namely, “all current and former hourly, non-exempt direct care employees of defendant who had a meal break deduction applied to their hours worked in any workweek where they were paid for at least forty (40) hours of work.”