Unpaid Overtime Issues Remain In Spite of Federal Laws

Most Americans have worked a job at one point or another and qualified for overtime work. In some industries, overtime is how employees are able to make a better annual income than in other industries despite relatively low hourly wages. In other industries, employers go to extreme lengths to keep their employees under 40 hours a week, fearing the federally-mandated costs of paying workers time-and-a-half.

The history of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) goes back to the 1930s, when the manufacturing and agriculture industries were booming in the United States. Progress was moving forward, but many employers still operated like 19th century industrialists, giving workers the worst choice: work as many hours as we need you to, or lose your job.

Labor and political leaders negotiated what they thought seemed fair when addressing wage and hour issues — employees who did not perform professional, administrative or managerial duties should be paid extra for time in excess of 40 hours per week. These employees, called “non-exempt,” would get their hourly wage times 1.5 for every hour worked over 40.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, as the New York Times said on its 75th anniversary, “to give a policy backbone to his belief that goods that were not produced under ‘rudimentary standards of decency’ should not be ‘allowed to pollute the channels of interstate trade.'”

Today many policy leaders are concerned, however, that the line between “exempt” and “non-exempt” is too gray and employers are too willing to cross it, classifying jobs as administrative, professional or managerial when in fact they are not.

Other concerns have arisen, including the extensive use of independent contractors as well as the overuse and abuse of unpaid internships. According to labor law experts, the problem is that compliance depends on employees coming forward and complaining. Because today as in the 1930s, when the law was drafted, employers have far more power than employees, fear of retaliation or losing one’s job can be a deterrent from coming forward.

Many opinion leaders and labor activists are calling on the government to investigate wage and hour compliance instead of waiting for employees to come forward, but as of yet, nothing has been done to act on these calls. The good news is that workers who do file unpaid overtime class action lawsuits are often successful in recovering lost wages and damages from the companies for which they work.

Join a Free Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay in California within the past 2 to 3 years, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone. Learn more and obtain a free evaluation of your case to see if you’re eligible for back pay and other compensation at the Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit: Wage & Hour, Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit Investigation.