Your Basic Wage and Overtime Rights

The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) protects American workers and their families from unfair pay practices.  In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt summarized the FLSA’s simple objective: “A fair day's pay for a fair day's work.”

Seventy years later, American workers need the FLSA more than ever.
Under the FLSA and similar state laws, millions of American workers have the right to:

• Receive a minimum wage of $7.15 in Pennsylvania and at least $6.55 in other states.
• Be paid for all time spent working.
• Receive overtime pay calculated at 150% of their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek; commonly known as “time-and-one-half pay.”
• If female, receive the same pay as male co-workers who perform the same job and have similar levels of experience.

Common Wage and Overtime Violations

• Failing to Credit and Pay Employees for All Time Spent Working 
• Misclassifying Salaried Employees as Exempt
• Misclassifying Employees as Exempt Motor Carriers 
• Failing to Pay Pre-Shift and Post-Shift Activities 
• Failing to Pay Overtime to Employees Paid on a Job-Rate Basis   
• Allowing Work During Meal Breaks
• Misclassified Independent Contractors
• Failing to Include Commissions, Shift Differential Pay Overtime Calculation 
• Averaging Long and Short Workweeks 
• Applying Rounding Rules that Regularly Shortchange Employees 
• Compensatory Time

You do not have to be a current employee to bring a wage and hour lawsuit.  You can seek recovery against a former employer for wage and hour violations arising any time during the past two, sometimes three years.

If your rights are violated by your current employer, federal law strictly prohibits the company from retaliating against you for making a wage and hour complaint, contact the National Justice Coalition to be connected with a qualified employment lawyer in your area.