My father-in-law is getting paid salary over between 50,000 and 60,000 dollars a year, but have been working 65+ hour weeks over the last 10 years or so. I understand some people are 'exempt' from overtime, but he gets home very late and gets almost no time with his family while not getting overtime. Is there way to get help and insight to our options to solving this problem? Thank you.
Most employees who are paid an hourly wage must be paid overtime (1.5 x hourly rate) for each hour each workweek over 40 hours. However, some employees who meet certain tests presecribed by the US Department of Labor are exempt from the overtime pay requirement if they meet those tests and are paid a guaranteed salary over the minimum prescribed amount. These folks are typically, managmement, professionals, outside sales or computer experts, but there are other exemptions as well.
A properly classified exempt employee may be required to work as much overtime as his employer requires, subject to the employee's freedom to resign if the work schedule is too demanding. That said, misclassifying hourly workers as salaried exempt workers is a common mistake or worse, a common scheme used by employers to avoid having to pay overtime. For an analysis of whether your father-in-law is properly classified, an attorney would need to know some facts about his job duties and pay structure.
The penalties for an employer mis-classifying a non-exempt employee as exempt are significant and can be severe if other employees were also subject to the same mis-treatment.
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