Employees who work beyond their allotted office hours are entitled to overtime pay by their employers. This overtime pay is half of the per hour pay of that particular employee. On calculating the rates, you are entitled to receive the daily per hour rate plus extra 50% of per hour rate for overtime. The overtime pay policy is not valid in all countries. The overtime pay is allotted to an employee on the basis of duties at the job, working hours and efficiency.
If you didn’t get your overtime pay then that can be due to multiple reasons. One of which can be the rules of the nation, the policies of the company you work with, etc. On the other hand, there are cases where an employee is entitled to overtime pay but the employer doesn’t pay him or her. Under such circumstances, the unpaid overtime pay is an illegal act if the law of the country supports overtime pay. One needs to understand the legal policies of their nation for receiving overtime pay.
Which Employers Have to Pay Overtime?
Even though most employers are bound to pay overtime to their employees but there are some who are not bound to pay. You need to determine whether the company you are working with covers the FLSA or Fair Labor Standards Act. A company or business is covered under the FLSA if the annual sale of the firm is $ 500,000 or more. If the company falls under this act then your employer is bound to pay overtime for those extra hours of work you do. Any firm covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act is bound to pay overtime. If your employer’s firm comes under the FLSA but you didn’t get your overtime pay then you must seek legal help.
Which Employees Are Entitled to Earn Overtime Pay?
Employers who are registered under the FLSA are bound to pay overtime to all eligible employees. Every employee who works extra for a couple of hours is likely to get overtime pay. On the contrary, if any employee is exempted from getting the overtime pay then it can be due to reasons stated below.
- All the employees who are being paid a salary on a monthly basis are not entitled to overtime pay. For example, professional, executive and administrative level employees.
- Seamen
- Newspaper deliverers
- Volunteers
- Small farm employees
- Seasonal employees who are recruited for amusement or seasonal business
- Fishermen
- Investigators
- Independent contractors
- Employees hired for a few months for a particular job such as camping, NGO, non-profit educational conferences, etc
- Casual or domestic employees such as maids or baby sitters but not nurses who provide medical services
- Employees who are not directly related to the employers business, such as door to door salesperson. They are not entitled to any overtime pay.
- Computer specialists, system analysts, software engineers and programmers
- Employees who earn $30 per hour
- Small scale business firm employees
