Pensacola Overtime & Unpaid Wage Lawyers

There is no requirement under the FLSA for the employer to pay you your final paycheck within a specific number of days. However, the FLSA does require the employer to pay an employee their last paycheck at the normal payday interval when other employees should be paid for that time. 

Additionally, we are routinely contacted by employees whose employers take monies from their last paycheck for various reasons. Assuming the employee did not sign an agreement allowing the employer to take money from the employee’s last paycheck, then the employer cannot take money from the paycheck if doing so would reduce the employees below the minimum wage. 

If an employer improperly reduces the employee's paycheck below the minimum wage, then the employee may be entitled to the amount of the unpaid wages, liquidated damages, and attorneys fees and costs.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes a federal minimum wage requirement for all employees in the United States. Currently, the Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25 and applies to all employees employed by:

• Businesses with annual gross revenue of at least $500,000;
• Smaller businesses that are engaged in interstate commerce or production of goods  for interstate commerce;
• Individual employees that are employed in jobs where the employee is engaged in interstate commerce;
• Employees of federal, state, or local government agencies, hospitals, schools, and domestic workers

However, please note that the State of Florida has its own minimum wage law, which is higher than the Federal Minimum Wage. Currently, the Florida Minimum wage is $8.25 per hour and increases yearly.

Chinese overtime also referred to as the fluctuating workweek, is a method of paying overtime to an employee when the employee works over 40 hours a week, without destroying some of the benefits of having the employee be an “exempt employee.”

Under this method of paying overtime, the employer pays the employee a fixed salary for work up to 40 hours a week, but on the occasions when the employee works over 40 hours a week, the employer only has to pay half-time for the hours over 40 hours a week. To comply with the FLSA and qualify for “Chinese Overtime”, the employee’s hours must vary from week to week, that rate of pay used to calculate the employee’s half-time overtime rate must not fall under the federal minimum wage, and the employer and employee clearly understand that the salary will cover all hours worked in a workweek, even if only a small amount of time is worked. While this is a lawful pay practice if implemented correctly, mistakes and abuses that deny workers proper compensation are considered FLSA violations.

All employees are entitled to be paid overtime unless they fall within a specific overtime “exemption. Generally, there are three main exemptions – executive, professional, and administrative. If your position qualifies under one of these exemptions, then you are not entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA. However, it is not the job title that dictates whether the position is exempt from overtime and it does not matter if you agreed to work as a salaried employee. Instead, an evaluation of the job duties is necessary to determine if you are an exempt employee. This means that even if you agree to be a salaried employee, or if your job title sounds like it would be exempt, you may still be entitled to overtime as long as your job duties do not satisfy the exemption. Some other common exemptions are

• Commissioned salespeople who work in retail establishments
• Computer professionals earning at least $27.63 per hour
• Drivers, driver’s helpers, loaders, and mechanics employed by certain motor carriers
• Farm workers employed on small farms
• Automobile dealership mechanics, parts workers, and salespeople
• Salaried executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees

The FLSA provides for a two-year statute of limitations for employees to seek payment for unpaid minimum wages and overtime pay (extended three years if the employer willfully violated the FLSA). This means that once the lawsuit is filed, the employee can “look back” for two (2) years (and up the three (3) years for willful actions). 

The statute of limitations prevents the employee from recovering unpaid wages for the period greater than (2) years before the date that the Complaint was filed (and up the three (3) years for willful actions).  As such, if your employer did not pay you at least the minimum wage for every hour that you worked or did not pay you overtime, you need to speak with a wage and hour attorney immediately to protect your rights.

The FLSA requires that all “non-exempt” employees should be paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per work week. 

If you are entitled to overtime, the FLSA requires employers to pay overtime at a rate of no less than one and one-half times the employee’s regular hourly rate. There are some exceptions for occupations such as law enforcement, firefighters, and health care workers.  

Please note that the FLSA also allows exceptions for employees that are classified as exempt under the “Administrative Exemption”, “professional exemption”, and the “Executive exemption”/”management exemption.” To learn more, click here.

Generally, an employer can require employees to work more than 40 hours in a workweek, and can even discipline or fire employees for refusing to work over 40 hours. The FLSA does not establish the number of hours that an employer can require employees to work in a given week or day. Instead, the FLSA only requires the employer to provide overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek.

Please note that under Florida law, there is a separate statute that entitles an employee to overtime if the employee is paid on a daily rate and the employee works over 10 hours in a work day (and is not otherwise exempt from overtime). In other words, if the employee, is paid a specific amount per day, and the employee works more than ten (10) hours in a workday, then the employee is entitled to overtime for all hours that they work over ten (10) hours in a work day.

The decision of whether you are entitled to overtime is not solely based on whether you are paid a salary, but it depends on whether you meet the requirements of the specific overtime exemption (administrative, executive, professional, etc.). 

Assuming that your job activities meet these exempts, then you still must be paid a salary of at least $23,600 annually or $455 per week. If your employer does not pay you at least $23,600 annually or $455 per week, then that may void their ability to claim that you are exempt from overtime, which would entitle the employee to overtime.

If an employee has a valid workers’ compensation claim, they are entitled to be paid mileage to and from all medical appointments. However, the employee must keep a list of the dates that they went to the doctor and the number of miles which they traveled.

This information should be submitted to the insurance carrier or your attorney who will submit it to the carrier on a regular basis. While medical mileage may not add up to a lot of money, it does help compensate the employee for having to drive to the doctor. Additionally, it keeps your workers’ compensation claim open. Please note that if you do not have a vehicle or you’re not able to drive, then the insurance company is required to provide you transportation, you just have to request it.