The practice of employers to outright refuse to pay workers for any hours they worked over 40 a week, or not paying time and a half rate for overtime hours, has reached staggering proportions. The majority of NJ worker have jobs entitling them to overtime wages. Employers may arrogantly outright refuse to pay at the overtime wage rate or sometimes refuse to pay for any of the hours worked over 40 a week. The more savvy of the unscrupulous employers, rather than outright refuse, devise devious schemes labeling job descriptions and assigning sham employee titles in such a way to be circumvent having to pay overtime. Both practices are illegal. If you are being cheated out of your wages, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I am an experienced and successful wage payment attorney who can advise you as to your options and the best course of action for you. Don’t sit on your rights! If you are experiencing such despicable constructive wage theft, you may call this office today for a free consultation.
Most employees in New Jersey are “Non-Exempt Employees”, which means that their employment is such that the employer cannot legally claim they are legally excused, or “exempt” from paying their employees for overtime hours.
Mis-classification of a person’s employments position by the employer can occur when the employer assigns a fake title to the job position in a devious attempt to avoid paying overtime wages. This illegal practice has reached epidemic proportions. Intentional job mis-classification to avoid paying legal wages is constructive wage theft. One of the ways this is done is when companies assign a title of “Manager” to employees to avoid paying them overtime wages that the employers are legally obligated to pay. The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), its counterpart the Federal Code of Regulations and New Jersey Wage and Hour Law which incorporates much of the FLSA, define the circumstances by which employees are exempt from the right to receive overtime payments. Just because your employer assigned you a title of “Manager” or gave you a “Manager” badge with your name on it, it does not necessarily mean that you are a manager as within the legal parameters that FLSA and New Jersey Wage and Hour Law require for your employer to be exempt from paying you overtime.
There are clearly defined statutory tests that determine the Criteria for Overtime Exemption. Your employer must pass the “Tests for Overtime Exemption Criteria” to legally be exempt from paying you overtime: the first test is a job duties test and the second is salary threshold test.
You can learn about the Minimum Salary Threshold Test and the Basic Duties Test containing the three components as listed in the Code of Federal Regulations by reading (Note: the monetary figures in the subsequent referenced article have changed since its 8/14/ 2023 date of publication) Contrived Fake Manager Titles to Avoid Overtime Wages here.
Labeling Some Employees as “Administrators” (When They Really Do Not Fit the Statutory Criteria) Is Another Scam
Employers also will sometimes scam workers by assigning them a title of “Administrator” to have them be salaried workers who are not entitled to overtime. This in some circumstances is constructive wage theft and an abuse of an employee’s time; some are cheated out of 20 or more hours of overtime pay a week.
A worker with a job description of “Administrator” may in some circumstances nevertheless be legally entitled to overtime payments when certain criteria are met. You may read more about this scam (Note: the monetary figures in the subsequent referenced article have changed since its 3/20/2023 date of publication) in Supervisors and Overtime Pay here.
Restoring Overtime Pay Act of 2023
A bill was introduced in the Senate on March 29, 2023, by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) which would make millions of workers eligible for overtime pay when they work over 40 hours a week. President Joseph Biden has pledged to make more workers eligible for overtime pay and has stated he will be signing the Restoring Overtime Pay Act if it passes House of Representatives and the Senate. In 2015, the Obama administration pushed a new rule that would have increased the overtime salary threshold, but a federal judge blocked it in 2016 and issued a nationwide injunction that effectively denied 4.2 million workers overtime benefits. You may read more on Restoring Overtime Pay Act here.
If You Have Been Cheated out of Your Wages, Suspended, Had Your Hours Slashed, or Were Terminated or Threatened with Termination
If you have been cheated out of your wages; or suspended, had your hours slashed, or were terminated or threatened with termination for demanding wage and overtime pay for which you are entitled, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation.
Don’t Sit on Your Rights!
I am an aggressive and compassionate employment law attorney who is experienced in successfully representing employees who suffered illegal wage payment. If you find yourself in a situation where your employer is cheating you out of your wages or inadequate job security because of the aforementioned issues, you should contact this office today for a free consultation.
I am successful in bringing employee lawsuits against governmental entities and private employers and recovering money for victims' wrongful wage payment, employer wage theft, and age, race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and other discrimination. If you think you are being pushed out of your job or retaliated against, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.