Working overtime to prevent being sued for unpaid overtime wages.

This is not the first time we have noted the issue of overtime and how the government and employees are coming after employers who fail to understand their duty and don’t pay overtime wage to those employees who deserve them.

We continue to hear employers say “well, my employees are salaried, so they don’t get overtime.” Failure to understand the FLSA and who is eligible for overtime continues to be a huge problem for employers. In addition to figuring out who is or isn’t exempt from overtime pay, how to calculate how much to pay also confounds small and medium sized business. Even large corporate employers have trouble with FLSA and overtime.

QuikTrip Corp recently had to pay almost $750,000 in back overtime wages to current and former employees in nine states including Kansas and Missouri. A Department of Labor investigation found that QuikTrip violated the FLSA when they did not pay additional overtime based on performance related bonuses.

Federal law does not require an employer provide bonuses to its employees, however if nondiscretionary bonuses are paid to non-exempt employees, the bonus amount must be included in the employee’s regular pay rate to compute overtime. The determination of exempt or non-exempt status is an individual determination based on what the employee actually does, not the position, title, or being paid by a salary. A wrong decision can have a devastating impact on a business financially as well as its reputation.

This determination is extremely important and you should make sure that your HR partner is trained and fully competent to assist you in making it. Don’t be one of the thousands of employers this year that gets caught by the government investigators or sued by your employees for violations of the FLSA.

Let us help ensure you are protected, call us today!!!