You may enjoy your job, and therefore not mind when your employer asks you to work extra hours. However, before agreeing to this, you must ensure that your job position allows you to do so. In addition, you must ensure that you are being fairly compensated for it. Continue reading to learn whether your employer is allowed to make you work overtime and how an experienced Gloucester County wage and hour lawyer at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C., can help you retrieve your rightful pay.
Is my employer allowed to make me work overtime?
Long story short, your employer may be allowed to ask you to work overtime if you are considered a non-exempt employee. The state of New Jersey complies with the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when it comes to classifying non-exempt employees. And typically, the FLSA considers non-exempt employees to be those who work at an hourly rate and who are entitled to earn at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Further, these employees tend to be directly supervised by higher-ups and are expected to dutifully carry out orders.
Common examples of non-exempt employees include those who work in construction, manufacturing, maintenance, service, and retail. Contrastingly, common examples of exempt employees include those who hold executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales positions.
Is my employer supposed to pay me for working overtime?
If you are a non-exempt employee, then New Jersey law holds that your employer must pay you 1.5 times your regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a given workweek. It is worth mentioning that the law does not require your employer to offer this pay for hours worked over eight in a given workday.
Unfortunately, it is far too common for employers to attempt to get around this law by misclassifying their employees as exempt employees. For example, your employer may give you a certain job title that is typically considered exempt, even though your job duties and functions do not exactly align with it. In another case, your employer may pay you a salary instead of hourly to classify you as exempt. However, in the state of New Jersey, this only works if you earn more than $684 per week or $35,568 per year.
This is why an employer must prove that an employer is exempt through a two-pronged salary basis test and duties test. So if you believe that your employer would fail this test, then you may dispute your wages in a legal action. At the end of the day, you must not take any chances when it comes to your wage and hour claim. So please retain the services of one of the skilled New Jersey employment lawyers from The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. as soon as you can.
