If you are a statutory employee, you might wonder how overtime pay is calculated. Overtime pay is calculated at one-and-one-half times your hourly rate. This means that you must be paid your regular hourly rate along with an overtime premium of one-half of your rate for each hour that you work during a work week above 40 hours. However, if you are an exempt employee, you are not entitled to overtime pay. Swartz Swidler assists employees who have not been paid the overtime premium for their work so that they can recover the money to which they are entitled.
How to calculate your hourly overtime rate
To calculate your hourly overtime rate, you must start with your regular hourly rate of pay. If you are unsure, you can look at your last paystub. You can then take your regular hourly rate and multiply it by 1.5 to figure out how much you should be paid for any overtime work that you have performed.
Exempt employees
Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime pay. However, some employers misclassify employees as exempt when they should be considered to be statutory employees who are entitled to overtime. Exempt employees must be paid a minimum salary of $455 per week and must have professional, regulatory, or supervisory job duties. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, an exempt employee must perform certain obligations to qualify as exempt from the overtime requirements.
Calculation errors
Employers are not allowed to average time over a few weeks to get around paying overtime. For example, if you work 30 hours during one work week and 50 during the next, your employer cannot average the time from the two weeks to state that you are ineligible for overtime pay. Instead, you should receive 10 hours of overtime pay for the week in which you worked 50 hours.
Overtime pay for non-exempt salaried workers
If you receive a salary and are a non-exempt employee, you are entitled to overtime. You can calculate your overtime rate by the standard 40-hour work week. To figure it out, divide your weekly salary amount by 40 hours to arrive at your regular hourly rate. Multiply it by 1.5 to get your overtime rate.
Contact Swartz Swidler
If you believe that your employer has failed to pay you for overtime work, and you are a non-exempt employee, you may have legal rights. Talk to the attorneys at Swartz Swidler to learn more about what you might be able to do.
