When the employees work for more hours then the prescribed hours they become entitled to receive overtime but not in all the conditions. It is not necessary that all the employees for overtime work must be paid extra. In the united states, overtime pay is not a universal right. Some workers are not legally entitled to receive overtime pay this may be due to the kind of work they do or the amount of money they make. There are also some small companies that are not liable to pay overtime wages to their employees. In The US, Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) covers major businesses, where most of the employees are liable to receive overtime if they work for more than 40 hours a week. This means that the vast majority of workers are entitled to overtime pay for the extra hours worked.
When is not Paying Overtime Illegal?
Not paying overtime is legal or illegal depends upon some conditions. It mostly depends upon the kind of work the employee is doing or the money that he is making while on the job. The FLSA sets out the minimum wage and the child labor laws also, that covers the vast majority of American workers. The business those are not covered by FLSA, no matter how much their employee’s work are not liable to pay overtime.
FLSA Covered Businesses
FLSA covers businesses that engage in interstate commerce because the law is a federal law and not state law. It also covers businesses that make a sale of at least $500,000 per annum. Therefore small businesses are not burdened with FLSA laws. This means that a company needs to fulfill any one of the above two criteria to come under the FLSA law.
Exempt and Non-exempt Employees
Covered businesses comprise of exempt as well as non-exempt employees. Non-exempt employees are entitled to receive overtime wages, whereas, exempt employees are not. Therefore it is necessary to know who is exempted, employees. An exempted employee is the one who receives a fixed amount of salary irrespective of the amount of work done or one who makes $455 per week or $23,660 per year. Therefore all the other employees come under the non-exempted category and are entitled to receive overtime for any extra hour of work done. Therefore not paying overtime to non-exempted employees is illegal.
In the list of exempted employees of FLSA, there are also some other employees included. Like an executive, an administrator and also a professional are exempted from employees who receive a fixed salary.
Specific Occupations Where FLSA Don’t Apply
There are certain businesses in which the FLSA does not apply. Theses businesses are fishing, farms, movie theatres, seasonal amusement businesses, small newspapers and also small television and radio stations. All these businesses are exempted businesses and no matter if they are interstate businesses or not they are not covered under FLSA.
Conclusion
It is very much possible that your company is covered by FLSA but still they are not paying overtime to their employees. Therefore to know your rights it is necessary to go through theses laws and determine your applicability.
