Wage and Hour Losses
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Overtime pay at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek.
Covered nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per workweek (any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years or older may work in any workweek. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days.
Some common FLSA violations include:
Misclassifying employees
Overlooking off-the-clock work
Failing to pay unauthorized overtime
Not tracking breaks properly
Keeping inaccurate or incomplete records
Not compensating interns or volunteers
Failing to stay up-to-date with regulations
FLSA lawsuits are filed as a “collective action,” which is similar to a class action, but only includes those employees who specifically express their desire to be part of the litigation. Class action suits, on the other hand, include all possibly affected persons unless they specifically express their desire not to be part of the litigation. Similar to a class action though, these FLSA collective claims allow many employees to come together in one lawsuit and enable a large group of employees who are injured by the same illegal conduct to have all their claims joined together.
FLSA lawsuits are filed as a “collective action,” which is similar to a class action, but only includes those employees who specifically express their desire to be part of the litigation. Class action suits, on the other hand, include all possibly affected persons unless they specifically express their desire not to be part of the litigation. Similar to a class action though, these FLSA collective claims allow many employees to come together in one lawsuit and enable a large group of employees who are injured by the same illegal conduct to have all their claims joined together.
Bringing collective actions are important in situations which involve hundreds, or potentially thousands, of class members or employees because if each person brought only their own lost wages individually, it would probably be too small to bring to suit. However, when you combine everyone’s individual claim in a collective action, individual employees themselves can be more successful in receiving compensation caused by the employer’s illegal conduct.