What does the FLSA do?

The FLSA outlines the rules for pay and overtime for American workers. It also defines who is responsible for enforcing it and covers some federal employees. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is responsible for ensuring that the law is followed. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management enforces the law for other employees of the executive branch of the government. Legislative employees are protected by the U.S. Congress. The FLSA makes certain that covered workers who work more than 40 hours in a week receive overtime pay.

Who is covered?

Theoretically, the FLSA applies to all employees who are non-exempt. The attorneys at Swartz Swidler understand the law and are able to determine whether or not your job meets the requirements.

There are two tests that are used to determine if a worker is eligible for overtime pay or coverage under the FLSA. These are the salary and responsibility tests. If a worker meets the criteria for either of these tests, he or she is likely to be eligible for overtime pay.

Salary Test:

The Obama administration increased the minimum salary for exempt employees from $455 per week to $910 per week. Under that rule, employees who would be paid less than $910 per week would have been FLSA eligible. However, a court in Texas blocked the implementation of that rule, and the DOL dismissed its own appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Sept. 2017. This means that the current minimum salary requirement remains at $455 per week. The DOL has stated that it will likely raise the salary amount in 2018 somewhere in the $30,000 to $36,000 per year range.

Responsibility Test:

This test is more difficult because it requires scrutiny of the actual tasks that workers are required to do. Job titles do not matter if the work that is performed is actually non-managerial. The responsibility test looks at the type of work that a worker is doing throughout each workday.

Exempt from FLSA coverage

The following are exempt from FLSA coverage:

• Executive work tasks
• Professional jobs
• Administrative jobs
• Sales jobs

What happens to employees who are not covered by the FLSA?

Employees who are not covered by the FLSA do not receive any protection from the law. Exempt employees can expect to receive their base salaries since they are normally salaried. While the FLSA does not cover these workers, there may be other laws that do.

Covered workers

Covered workers must be paid one-and-one-half their regular hourly pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a week. The law also allows employers to reimburse workers for overtime by giving them compensatory time off. If you believe that you are entitled to overtime pay and have not been paid what you are owed, contact the experienced employment lawyers at Swartz Swidler for help.