Wages & Overtime (FLSA) Claims and Counseling

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage and maximum hour laws. Generally speaking, a non-exempt employee who works more than 40 hours in a work week is entitled to be paid for all hours worked over 40 at one-and-a-half times the regular hourly rate. The employer is responsible for ensuring overtime is not worked if it does not intend to pay overtime. Wage and hour laws also govern meal breaks, rest periods (if offered) and various leaves. Violations of overtime can be costly. These claims can go back two, sometimes three years, and unpaid overtime may be doubled as a penalty. Many times overtime claims involve more than one employee and can turn into class action lawsuits. A common recurring theme in these matters is a failure to maintain time sheets and/or improper classification of employees, including improper classification as independent contractors. If improperly classified as an independent contractor, workers may still be entitled to overtime protections under the law.

Faulkner Law Offices has handled numerous wage and hour lawsuits both for employees and employers involving misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime pay, off the clock work without pay, missed meal breaks and other violations of the FLSA. We have years of experience counseling and defending clients in these cases, including ensuring compliance with federal and state wage and hour laws, overseeing wage and hour compliance audits and investigations. We counsel clients on how to best understand their work place obligations under these laws and draft company policies, procedures and handbooks to minimize company liability. We also represent employees seeking to obtain their earned but unpaid wages.