Salaried Employees and the Right to Overtime

By Rasansky McKenzie

If you work by the hour, you expect that anytime you put in more than 40 hours a week that you will be paid at the overtime rate of 1.5 times your regular hourly wage. What happens if you work for a salary? Can you expected to consistently work overtime, without extra pay?
Many employees assume that because they receive a salary, they are ineligible for overtime. This isn’t true. While some workers can be exempt from overtime pay, many salaried workers still qualify for overtime.
In 2004, the Department of Labor (DOL) updated the Fair Labor Standards Act, enacted in 1938, in order to eliminate references to jobs that no longer exist. At that time, the DOL determined that any employees making $455 a week (about $23,600 per year) or less are eligible for overtime pay.
If your employer expects you to work long hours at no additional pay, you may be owed overtime compensation. There are some exceptions.
You are only exempt from overtime if:

1. You are paid a salary and you make more than $23,600 ($455/week).
2. You have a job that is specifically excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime rules. These include movie theater employees, live-in household help, and farm workers on small farms, sales people who work on commission and make more than one and a half times minimum wage, car dealers, mechanics, seasonal workers, recreational workers, and computer professionals that make more than $27.63/hour. Railroad employees are covered under the Railway Labor Act and the Motor Carriers Act covers those in the trucking industry.
3. Your primary job is management, you supervise two or more employees, or you have input into the hiring, promotion, and firing of other employees.
4. You have an administrative job that’s directly related to management and operations of your company and you are trusted to use your independent judgment and discretion about important matters.
5. You are a learned professional. This category includes anyone whose job requires an advanced degree, including teachers, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, RNs, clergy, architects, engineers, scientists, actuaries, and others.
6. You are a creative professional. Musicians, composers, writers, cartoonists, artists, actors, and some journalists may be exempt from overtime pay even if they are not salaried.

What can you do if you are owed overtime? Check with a Dallas unpaid wage attorneys to see if you are owed money. The unpaid wages lawyer will contact your employer on your behalf and try to get your wages for you.
Your employer isn’t allowed to fire you or otherwise retaliate if you demand your fair wages. Your attorney will help you document your Texas unpaid wage case and help protect your job. To discuss you unpaid overtime case with a Dallas overtime lawyer, contact the Rasansky | McKenzie Law at (214) 651-6100.

About the Author

Anyone can hire a lawyer, but if you want to give yourself the best possible chance at success, call the experienced attorneys at Rasansky McKenzie. You only get one chance to bring your case before a court. Let them put their expertise to work for you.