FLSA Attorneys in Houston, Texas

Fair Labor Standards Act

Now the major national and Texas employment law guideline, the Fair Labor Standards Act was instated in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a labor law that addresses minimum wage provisions, the provisions of the Equal Pay Act, child labor laws, and other key federal labor and employment law sections. The Act is designed to ensure every worker receives fair and just compensation for the work he does, including overtime pay, and to ensure every worker receives a minimum base salary. All employers-regardless of their industries or fields of work-are required to abide by stipulations within FLSA. Texas and national employers who fail to do so can be held liable in Court. If you suspect that your employer has violated these acts, our FLSA attorneys in Texas can help. By filing Fair Labor Standards Acts lawsuits, employees hold corporations accountable for unfair and illegal actions.

One of the most frequently violated stipulations of the FLSA, and in all national and Texas employment law, is overtime pay. By law, employees must receive one and a half times their normal hourly rate for each hour they work beyond their standard 40 hours. That means if your regular pay is $10 per hour, you should earn $15 for every hour of overtime worked. You employers are legally obligated to pay you this wage. Additionally, whether or not the employer knows it was violating the law, if you have not been paid correctly, it is the responsibility of the employer to repay you. If that does not happen, employees are entitled to file lost overtime wage lawsuits. Houston attorneys at Herschel Hobson can help victims receive maximum compensation for their Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits.

However, many employees never receive this compensation because of error or foul play on their employer's part. The five major ways employers try to avoid paying employees overtime are:

· Making employees work off the clock, i.e. working through lunch and not being
  compensated
· Misclassifying workers as "exempt" from overtime
· Denying an employee overtime because it wasn't "approved" in advance
· Paying an employee "straight time" rates for overtime work
· Failing to count all hours an employee works

Making employees work off the clock
Companies cannot make an employee complete work on his own time without paying him for it. For example, a salesperson cannot be required to finish an assignment after clocking out. Not compensating employees for taking work home, coming in early, and working through lunch are also direct breaches of FLSA employment law regulations. For more information, please contact us today.

Misclassifying workers as "exempt" from overtime
The only employees exempt from the overtime stipulations of the FLSA are high-level executives in administrative and professional jobs, but many companies fail to properly distinguish these workers from other employees, such as managers, and wrongfully fail to pay them overtime. Just because an employee is paid a salary, it does not mean they are exempt from overtime pay. In order to be exempt from overtime, an employee must 1) be paid a salary AND 2) perform the duties the law designates for an exempt employee. Employers who wrongfully classify workers as exempt are violating the FLSA. Texas attorneys at Herschel Hobson can help clarify these differences to employees who fear their rights as a worker may have been violated. If an employer violates overtime laws, employees are entitled to file overtime wage violation lawsuits in court.

In one high-profile Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit, Touhy & Touhy, Ltd., filed a class action suit against retail electronics powerhouse Radio Shack Corporation for failing to pay former and current employees the overtime pay they had earned. Allegedly, Radio Shack executives wrongfully classified employees as managers so they would not have to be paid overtime. These employees were reportedly given titles (so the company could get around FLSA regulations), but the majority of their clocked hours were nevertheless spent performing non-managerial duties, such as selling. If your employer has knowingly misclassified you, we can help you win the compensation to which you are rightfully entitled. If you suspect that your employer has violated overtime laws, our FLSA attorneys in Texas can help.

Denying an employee overtime because it wasn't "approved" in advance
Many employers do not allow employees to work overtime unless they get approval. However, the FLSA employment law guideline stipulates that as long as your boss benefits from your overtime work, he has to pay you for it. If you were not paid the overtime you earned, we can help. Please contact us today.

Paying an employee "straight time" rates for overtime work
Employers must pay eligible employees time and a half for every hour of overtime worked. Simply paying an employee's regular rate is not sufficient-or legal. Please contact our FLSA attorneys today if you have received inadequate overtime pay.

Failing to count all hours an employee works
Some employers do not give workers 30-minute lunch breaks or do not pay them for time spent traveling from one workplace to another. If your employer has failed to properly pay you for all hours worked, we can help. If you suspect that your employer has violated overtime laws, our FLSA attorneys in Texas can help.