The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets minimum compensation standards and requires certain types of employees to be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week. Unfortunately, the statutes and regulations are vague and cumbersome. While some employers may intentionally violate this statute, many may not realize when an employee is misclassified as exempt from overtime.
The fact that you are paid a salary (rather than by the hour) does not necessarily mean you are ineligible for overtime pay. For example, salaried department store managers and even assistant managers have been found to be eligible for overtime pay. In other instances, companies may violate the The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to pay employees for on-call hours or time spent commuting between job sites.
