Overtime Pay

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), as well as both New York and New Jersey state overtime laws, most but not all employees are entitled to be paid time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours in a particular week.

Not every employee is legally entitled to receive overtime pay. Rather, there are many exceptions and exemptions to that requirement.

The three primary exemptions from the overtime requirements are for Executive, Administrative and Professional employees. These categories have somewhat misleading names and are fairly narrowly defined. More information is available on our minimum wage page.

Even if you do not fall into one of those three exempt categories, there are many other categories of employees who are exempt from the overtime pay requirement. Among others, they include employees who are exempt from the minimum wage requirement, as well as certain commissioned employees working for retail companies, employees who sell cars, trucks, boats or other specified vehicles to consumers, and employees who work for railroads and airlines.

For more information about whether you are entitled to overtime pay, please feel free to call us at (201) 777-2250 to schedule an appointment with one of our New Jersey overtime law attorneys.

Many employees believe they are not entitled to overtime pay simply because they are paid a salary rather than by the hour. However, that is not necessarily true. Many salaried employees are entitled to receive overtime pay.

Regardless of how you are paid, you are entitled to be paid time-and-a-half for your overtime hours each week in which you work more than 40 hours unless you fall into an exempt category. Otherwise, companies would be able to avoid paying its employees overtime just by paying them a salary instead of by the hour.

Private companies are not permitted to give employees paid time off instead of paying them time-and-a-half for their overtime hours. In other words, they cannot offer compensatory time instead of overtime pay.

However, in both New Jersey and New York, state and local government employers can offer their employees the option of receiving compensatory time instead of being paid time-and-a-half for their overtime hours.

Even if you are not legally entitled to overtime pay under state or federal law, some companies have more generous policies. Likewise, employees may be entitled to be paid extra for their overtime hours based on their employment contracts or offer letters.

For instance, some companies voluntarily agree to pay their hourly employees time-and-a-half before they have worked 40 hours per week, or for working on holidays or weekends. Other companies count paid breaks toward their hours worked when calculating overtime pay, even though the law does not require them to do so. These policies and agreements often can be legally enforceable.

The New Jersey overtime lawyers at Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C. have handled many class and collective actions against companies that have violated New York and New Jersey overtime laws by failing to pay overtime to large groups or categories of employees. Frequent victims of wage and hour violations include assistant managers, shift supervisors, loan officers, waiters, waitresses, bartenders, cooks, service technicians, salespeople, call center workers, nurses, and janitors.

Many employees who have been denied overtime pay also are have not been paid the minimum wage. More information is available on our minimum wage claims page.

Employees are legally entitled to be paid all of the salary and hourly wages they earned.  More information is available on our unpaid wages page.

Employers often take advantage of the fact that it can be complicated and confusing for employees to determine if they are entitled to overtime pay. Other employers do not understand wage and hour laws correctly.

Either way, if you believe your employer is not paying you all of the wages to which you are entitled, and would like to schedule an appointment with one of our New Jersey overtime law attorneys, you can contact us online or call us at (201) 777-2250.