Fair Labor Standards Act

Has your employer failed to pay you what is due to you? Are you forced to work off the clock without being compensated for that time?  Are you paid overtime pay for work weeks longer than forty hours? If you are paid by tips, does your boss steal your tips?

Houston employment lawyers Robert J. Wiley, and Kalandra N. Wheeler represent workers whose employers do not pay them overtime, fail to pay them for work performed off the clock, and steal their employees tips, all of which constitute  federal and state law violations.

The FLSA was passed after the Great Depression after 1938, when many employers abused their authority and took advantage of the economic and financial situation of many Americans to subject workers to terrible conditions and unreasonable hours.  The FLSA is responsible for enacting standards for overtime pay, employment records, minimum wage, and underage employment in both the private and public sectors.

The FLSA requires of an employer to:

1)   Pay its employees a minimum wage

2)   Abide by child labor laws

3)   Keep records or document the would ordinarily be kept in a business

4)   Pay overtime pay for hours worked over 40 hours in a work week

The FLSA does NOT require an employer to:

1)   Pay employees for vacation time, sick leave, or holidays

2)   Pay employees through their lunch breaks

3)   Issue raises or fringe benefits

4)   Provide a reason for terminating an employee

5)   Provide employees with health insurance or other insurance benefits

6)   Giving severance to an employee who has been terminated

Some employees are exempt from FLSA requirements, such as pay for overtime and minimum wages, even though their employers are covered. For example, many airline employees are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime provisions. And most companions for the elderly are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime provisions.

Exemption and partial exemption from the FLSA cuts both ways. For employees who are exempt, the often-surprising downside is that they are generally not entitled to wage extras, such as overtime and compensatory time. The upside is that, at least theoretically, exempt employees are paid a salary that is handsome enough to compensate them for the extra duties and responsibilities they have taken on as part of their jobs. In addition, the paychecks of the exempt can be docked only for complete days of absence for vacation, personal business, illness, or partial initial or final weeks of employment.

Employers who attempt to have it both ways—for example, by denying workers overtime by claiming they’re exempt but docking them for tardiness or time away for an occasional errand—risk violating wage and hour laws.  An individual’s right to sue may be barred if he or she signed an arbitration agreement as part of an employment contract.

Employees have the right to sue their employer if they have been victims of FLSA abuse, including unpaid overtime pay and minimum wages. 

Don’t let yourself be a victim of wage theft. Our law firm works diligently for underpaid and unpaid wages. We have help many individuals make sure that they receive the honest pay that they are entitled too. Contact our Law Firm Now.