Generally, Tennessee salaried employers are not due overtime, but new FairPay rules under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have qualified more salaried employees for overtime pay. An estimated 6.7 million workers do not meet the duties tests for their job title and now qualify for unpaid overtime payments. Tennessee employees may have overtime payments coming to them even if they work for a salary instead of a wage. When it comes to overtime for salaried employees, the type of work you do more important than the title you are given.
In June 2007, almost 87,000 Wal-Mart employees across the country and in Tennessee received $33 million in back pay plus interest for overtime work for which Wal-Mart had told them they were exempt because they were salaried. The U.S. Department of Labor found that Wal-Mart’s manager trainees had to work well over 40 hours a week but did not have the decision-making authority necessary to qualify them as supervisors.
Overtime Determined by Duties and Pay
Under FairPay rules, your salary and job duties are more important than such ambiguous titles as “executive,” “administrative,” “professional” or “outside sales.” Employees earning less than $23,660 per year (or $455 per week) qualify for overtime protections and pay. Additionally, positions must carry specific responsibilities and power in order for Tennessee workers to not qualify for overtime payments.
(NOTE: Police officers, firefighters and other “first responders” do not qualify for this “white collar overtime.”)
|
|
Overtime Exemptions for Salaried Workers
You may be owed unpaid overtime pay if you do not meet the following criteria. Management employees must earn a salary above $23,660 per year and must supervise at least two persons and manage an enterprise or a department. Administrative employees must likewise earn more than the $455 a week minimum and have direct influence in the business of their employer to be exempt from overtime pay.
Overtime under FLSA also applies to some computer employees. Computer workers must be paid at least $455.00 a week or $27.63 an hour and perform at least semiskilled computer work (computer programming, systems analysis, engineering software, etc.) to be exempt from overtime pay.
Recovering Money Withheld from Tennessee Salary Exemptions
Extra hours add up, as does the required time-and-a-half each hour over 40 requires. This is the reason many employees mislabel employees or offer them salaries under $24,000. Taking legal action in an overtime cases can compensate for years of illegally withheld overtime (back pay) along with liquidated damages (double the amount owed) and attorney’s fees
Please note that in Tennessee, if you are paid a productivity-based bonus, this might alter the circumstances of your cases as additional pay should be included in the calculation of time-and-a-half.
Each overtime case is specific and requires the experience and insight that comes from years of practicing Tennessee employment law, experience and insight that Nashville’s Higgins Employment Law Firm provides.
|