The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ("FLSA") is a federal law governing wages and hours of employees, specifically minimum wages and overtime compensation. When an employer violates the provisions of the FLSA, an experienced attorney can help an employee defend his or her rights. By law, employers are required to pay employees overtime compensation at the rate of one and a half times their regular hourly wages for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. The FLSA provides that employees may sue to enforce the overtime provisions of the FLSA. Employees may seek to recover all unpaid overtime compensation plus an equal amount of liquidated damages, as well as attorneys' fees.
O’Malley & Langan represents men and women who have claims against their employers either because they are forced to work off the clock and are not paid, or work overtime without compensation. One of the most common schemes that we see is when an employer illegally classifies an employee as "exempt" to avoid paying overtime compensation. These claims can be brought in any instance where a worker must put in time in excess of 40 hours and should be paid overtime because they are not exempt. Typically these claims arise in the context of workers who are paid a base plus commission, or only commission, and should not be classified as exempt.
Because pursuing a wage and hour claim for a single worker may not make economic sense – i.e. the potential recovery does not justify the costs and risks of litigation – some people choose to file a class action suit. The class action vehicle allows hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of similarly situated workers to sue an offending employer in one proceeding.
If you have been a victim of unfair wage and hour practices, contact O’Malley & Langan for a free legal consultation. We’ll do everything we can to make sure your employer is held responsible for treating you unfairly and get you the compensation you deserve.
