Unpaid Overtime Hours
Overtime is when an employee works more than a certain amount of hours in a week. Overtime pay is paid at a higher rate than daily pay for all hours worked. Hourly workers must be paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate for jobs over 40 hours per week.

At the start of 2020, the Department of Labor introduced new regulations that increased the exemption wage standard from $455 to $684 a week. If you are under this bracket, this is how you calculate unpaid overtime:

Validate Nonexempt Status

Verify that your job is classified as nonexempt and that it is not exempt from the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The following tests verify the exempt or nonexempt status: job duties, wage level, and salary basis. To be considered excluded, you must pass all three examinations. Otherwise, your work is considered nonexempt, which means you should be paid overtime.

Reasons for Falling Under the Exempt Category

Some workers are deemed excluded from earning overtime pay due to the nature of their jobs. An employee must have particular categories of job duties to be counted as excluded.

Executive, managerial, technical, outside sales, and some machine workers are excluded under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The exempt status will be determined on a case-by-case basis and is not dependent on the employee's work title.

Calculate Overtime Hours

Calculate unpaid overtime hours over the past couple of years. Include as much supporting evidence as possible, such as pay stubs and timesheets, to back up your point. It will show the exact dates and periods when your overtime hours were not paid properly, as well as the amount of pay you received for these hours if any.

Determine the Overtime Pay

The amount of overtime paid to each employee in a pay period is known as overtime pay. Overtime pay is determined as follows: hourly pay rate multiplied by 1.5 times the number of overtime hours worked, that is,
  • Regular pay = Regular pay rate x 40 hours
  • Overtime pay = regular pay rate x 1.5 x overtime hours
  • Total pay = Regular pay + Overtime pay


Example

Overall compensation for a worker who worked 45 hours per week:
  • Regular rate is $20; overtime is 5 hours
  • Regular pay = $20 x 40 = $800
  • Overtime pay = $20 x 1.5 x 5 = $150


Approach Your HR Department

If there's a difference between the OT pay you calculated and the paid amount, speak with the human resources department. The unpaid amount of overtime compensation you are owed for hours worked may be processed automatically via the company's payroll system after your timesheet information has been reviewed and verified. If the boss objects to the details you've submitted, you'll need to hire a lawyer.

File a Complaint

Hire a competent employment law attorney to make a lawsuit on your behalf for unpaid overtime pay. When the case is about to close, you should wait for the judge's final decision.

If you win the case, your employer would be responsible for compensating you for the disparity between what you were paid and what you should have received.

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