Of all the frustrating things that can happen at work, the most frustrating one is when your employer does not pay you. Payday comes and goes, but your paycheck does not arrive in your bank account, even as the due dates for your bills keep inching closer. You keep working as your financial situation gets worse, so bad that, by the time your late paycheck arrives, it hardly even feels like a relief.
The second most frustrating thing is when your employer pays you, but it is not enough to compensate for the work that you completed during the pay period. Because you were still able to cover your bills to the point that you are not under dire threat of getting kicked out of your apartment, your employer does not consider it an urgent matter; your employer has better things to do than follow up on a late partial payment.
One of the most common reasons for employers to fail to pay part of your wages is situations where you worked overtime, but your employer failed to calculate the pay for the overtime hours at the overtime rate. It could simply be because of a mistake on your employer’s part, or your employer might even deny that the extra hours count as overtime pay. The Bozeman failure to pay overtime lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you get the money you earned if your employer did not pay you for all the overtime hours you worked.
Montana Overtime Pay Laws
Overtime pay is when you get a higher rate of pay than your usual hourly wage for times when you work more than a full-time schedule. Specifically, you get the overtime rate, which is 1.5 times your usual hourly pay rate, for every hour past the 40th hour that you work in a single week. For example, if your usual hourly wage is $12 per hour, but in one week, you cover for a coworker’s shift in addition to your usual schedule, so you end up working 46 hours, then you get $12 per hour for the first 40 and $18 per hour for the last six. The additional $108 in your bank account is ample compensation for how tired you are at the end of a week where you worked 46 hours. At the end of the week, the clock resets, and you do not get any more overtime pay unless and until there is another week where you work more than 40 hours.
Almost everyone you know spends at least 40 hours per week doing paid work, so why don’t more people get overtime? Overtime pay is only applicable in certain jobs; many of the jobs where people work long hours are exempt from the requirement for employers to pay the overtime rate for weeks when employees take on more than a full-time workload. These are the types of jobs that are exempt from overtime pay:
- Managerial jobs, even when the manager’s pay is by the hour, as is often the case at retail jobs
- Seasonal jobs, such as firework stands that are only open for a few weeks leading up to the Fourth of July or gift-wrapping kiosks that are only open during the Christmas season
- Most salaried jobs, where employers do not keep track of how many hours the employee works, because most of the work is intellectual labor, and it is less clear cut when you are working versus when the work-related decision process is going on in the back of your mind even though you are at home or reading work emails in the back of a rideshare car
- Independent contractors, where you are technically self-employed instead of being an employee of your employer
What if You and Your Employer Disagree About Whether You are Entitled to Overtime Pay?
Overtime laws sound straightforward, but there are a lot of gray areas. For example, it is not always so clear whether someone is a manager. In another scenario, you might have applied to work at Bath and Body Works for the Christmas season, at which time you worked more than 40 hours every week, but then you might have stayed on as a full-time employee, and you and your employer might disagree about which week was the first one in which you became eligible for overtime pay.
Remember that employers care more about their bottom line than they do about your best interests. Therefore, you should not be surprised if your employer tries to exploit these ambiguities to their advantage. For example, your employer might issue you a 1099 form and pay you as an independent contractor, even though you perform the same duties as some other employees who are officially on your employer’s payroll. Likewise, your employer might give you a fancy title that includes the word “manager,” even though you get paid by the hour, and for many weeks, you work more than 40 hours. A Bozeman employment lawyer can help you figure out whether your employer is breaking the law or whether it is simply a case of “that’s capitalism for you.”
A Bozeman Employment Lawyer Can Help You Exercise Your Right to Fair Pay
Employers have a legal obligation to pay their employees at the overtime rate when the employee’s job qualifies for overtime pay and when the employee has worked more than 40 hours in one week. Failure to pay employees at the overtime rate when they are entitled to it counts as wage theft. If your employer did not pay you overtime when you earned it, you have the right to file a wage theft claim against your employer. A Bozeman employment lawyer can help you exercise your legal rights.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys LLP About Overtime Pay Disputes
The Bozeman employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can counsel you about disputes with your employer over payment of overtime wages. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Bozeman, Montana, to set up a consultation.
