If you are working in excess of 40 hours per week and not receiving overtime pay, you may be entitled to substantial back pay.
Every year, workers in all kinds of jobs are paid a salary and are told by their employers that they are not entitled to overtime pay. They are paid the same amount per week no matter how many hours they put in at work.
In many cases, this is wrong and the employer is in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law that establishes, amongst other things, overtime pay requirements. If you have not been receiving the pay you deserve, you may be entitled to file a claim to recover the following:
- Your unpaid wages, going back as far as three years.
- Liquidated damages, which is a doubling of everything that you are owed.
- Your attorney’s fees and court costs
If your employer has not been paying you time and a half for overtime you have accumulated, here’s how you can calculate how much you are owed:
Step 1
For each week worked, take the total pay and divide by the number of hours worked to determine your regular hourly rate for the week:
Total Pay ÷ The Number of Hour Worked = Your Regular Hourly Rate
So, for example:
($300 x 7 days = $2100 in total pay) ÷ 70 hours worked = $30/hour
Step 2
Divide your regular hourly rate by 2 in order to get the halftime rate you are owed for each hour worked over of 40
$30 ÷ 2 = $15
Step 3
Multiply your halftime rate by the number of overtime hours worked during the workweek
$15 x 30 = $450
This is the amount of overtime pay you should have received but didn’t.
Step 4
Multiply the amount derived in Step 4 by the number of weeks you worked without receiving overtime pay. So, for example, if you worked 39 weeks per year for 2 years for a total of 78 weeks, you would be owed the following sum:
(78 weeks) x $450 = $35,100 in unpaid overtime.
This amount may then be doubled by a judge, resulting in a claim worth $70,200!
Contact an Experienced Employment Law Attorney
For help getting the overtime pay that is rightfully owed to you, or with calculating how much back pay you are owed, contact an experienced employment law attorney. It won’t cost you anything to retain a lawyer and file a lawsuit against your employer because your attorney can expect to be paid as part of the damages you receive. Call us today to arrange a free initial consultation.