Articles Tagged with FLSA

Employee entitled to overtime payLast week, the United States Supreme Court ruled that, no matter how much an employee earns per year, the primary exemptions to federal overtime pay requirement do not apply unless the employee is guaranteed to receive at least $455 per week for any week in which he or she performed any work for the employer.

Michael Hewitt worked for Helix Energy Solutions Group as a “toolpusher” on an offshore rig.  Helix paid him a flat fee for each day he worked.  Mr. Hewitt worked for Helix for four consecutive weeks, typically 12 hours per day for seven days per week, followed by four weeks off.  Although Helix did not pay him for the four week periods when he was not working, Mr. Hewitt earned over $200,000 per year.  Even though Mr. Hewitt regularly worked more than 40 hours per week, Helix never paid him an overtime premium.

Mr. Hewitt sued Helix under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (“FLSA”), a federal law that requires employers to pay covered employees receive overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours per week.

The Third Circuit recently addressed when a bonus an employee receives from someone other than his or her employer counts toward the employee’s “regular hourly rate” of pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

When Must Payments from Third Parties be Counted Toward Overtime Pay?The FLSA is a federal law that, among other things, requires employers to pay most non-exempt employees time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek.  As a result, the higher the employee’s regular hourly rate, the higher the overtime pay premium the employee is entitled to receive.

The case involves employees of Bristol Excavating Inc., an excavation contractor, who work at sites owned by another company, Talisman Energy Inc.  Since the employees work 12 ½ hour shifts every day for two straight weeks, followed by a week off, they routinely work substantial overtime hours.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to pay employees for breaks during the workday that are no longer than 20 minutes long.

American Future Systems, which does business as Progressive Business Publications, publishes and sells business publications.  Progressive pays its sales representatives by the hour, plus bonuses based on how much they sell, for the time they are logged onto their work computers.  Most of Progressive’s employees are paid minimum wage.

Employees entitled to be paid for short breaksIn the past, Progressive allowed its employees to take two paid fifteen-minute breaks per day.  But in 2009, the company implemented what it called a “flex time” policy.  Under this policy, employees were permitted to log off of their computers whenever they wanted, for as long as they wanted, as long as they worked the agreed-upon total number of hours per week.  But under this new policy, Progressive did not pay employees if they logged off of their computers for more than 90 seconds.  In other words, it stopped paying them for breaks that lasted more than 90 seconds.

In a recent ruling, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that an arbitration agreement did not prohibit an exotic dancer from pursuing her overtime and minimum wage claims in court.

Exotic Dancer Can Bring Wage and Hour Claim in CourtAlissa Moon worked at the Breathless Men’s Club, which is in Rahway, New Jersey.  The Club treated her as an independent contractor, rather than an employee.  In fact, she had to agree to rent space from the Club where she could perform, and signed an “Independent Dancer Rental Agreement” which expressly states that she is an independent contractor.

That agreement also includes the following arbitration provision:

Contact Information