Many employers fail to pay overtime wages or refuse to pay them outright. If you are a non-exempt employee, you deserve to be paid for the hours you work overtime, beyond the standard 40-hour workweek. Fight back against employers who utilize wage theft to undercut employees and pad their bottom line.
What Is Overtime Pay?
Under the federal law of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), all non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours in a single workweek are entitled to an overtime rate of time-and-a-half or 1.5 times their regular hourly rate. If you have been forced to work off the clock, are misclassified, or simply denied your overtime pay, you could have the start of a strong unpaid overtime claim.
Exempt employees do not qualify for overtime pay. These workers are defined as those that receive a fixed salary, meet minimum federal wage thresholds, and manage specific duties based on FLSA requirements. Qualifications and distinctions of exempt versus non-exempt are sometimes confusing, and your employer may have mistakenly qualified you incorrectly. If you have questions about your job status as exempt or non-exempt, you can discuss your unique situation with an Orange County unpaid overtime attorney at Elite Employment Law.
Steps to Recover Unpaid Wages
If your employer has denied your rightful overtime pay, you can pursue backpay through one of the two main channels. You can either file a complaint directly with a labor agency, such as the U.S. Department of Labor, or you can file a civil lawsuit.
Filing a complaint with a labor agency requires the federal or state government agency to confidentially investigate your employer by reviewing payroll records and interviewing employees. While this approach may ultimately result in securing back pay, working with government agencies can take time that you may not have.
The most effective way to recover wages and secure all compensation available to you is to file a private lawsuit in the California civil court system. This approach enables you to pursue all unpaid overtime wages that are owed to you, liquidate damages, which can double the amount of your back pay, and cover attorney’s fees and court costs, if you win.
Why You Need a California Unpaid Wages Lawyer
While you can file an agency complaint alone, the complexities of FLSA exemptions and the risk of misclassification make legal guidance crucial. An employment lawyer can definitively determine if you were correctly classified as exempt or non-exempt based on your specific job duties. They can also help calculate all back wages and demand the liquidated, or doubled, damages you are owed.
Technically, the FLSA prohibits employers from firing, demoting, or penalizing an employee for filing a wage claim or complaint. However, working with a law firm will help protect you from any illegal retaliation.
Meeting Legal Deadlines for Unpaid Overtime Wages
The legal deadline or statute of limitations for filing an FLSA claim is generally two years from the date of the violation, extended to three years if the employer willfully violated the law. Missing this deadline will permanently forfeit your right to recovery. Do not delay and miss out on securing the compensation you are rightfully owed.
At Elite Employment Law, we have successfully litigated against employers guilty of wage theft for over a decade, recovering millions for clients who were under-compensated by major corporations. Contact us today for a free, confidential case review.