Category : Overtime Pay
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Two former employees of Mario Batali are suing the celebrity chef for pay that they claim is rightly theirs. Stephanie Capsolas and Herman Ricardo Alvarado, a waitress and kitchen runner respectively, claim that Batali wrongly divvied up their tips with other employees.
Attorney Denise A. Schulman says that the restaurant Babbo, owned by Batali, was improperly taking 4.5 percent of its wine sales every night and subtracting it from the tip pool, which deprived employees of that income and decreased their base wage.
The employees’ class action lawsuit also claims that the workers are paid below minimum wage and work overtime, with shifts that exceed 10 hours.
Chef Mario Batali, who has not commented on the lawsuit, owns 15 eateries which are located in New York, Nevada and California.
The idea of work-life balance can be elusive if you have no idea how to achieve it. Whether or not you currently get paid time and a half for overtime, it can be difficult to make time for your career and social life.
Since the work-life balance concept was developed in the 1970s, some organizations have studied it and found some ways to improve it. According to Forbes, you’re better off implementing tips into your life than you are beating yourself up about not currently having a great balance.
Follow these simple work-life balance tips from WebMD and Mayo Clinic:
- Keep track of your activities throughout the week and decide what you can do without or what satisfies you the least
- Turn off your cell phone and other technology when you are spending time with family or doing a hobby
- Don’t feel guilty for having a family or other obligations besides work
- Accept help from friends and family to get things done
- Pencil in time for fun in your schedule, and treat it just as importantly as a work meeting or doctor’s appointment
If your employer has no knowledge of employment law and is not offering appropriate overtime pay, consulting with an overtime lawyer could result in you participating in a class action lawsuit to get the money you deserve. Meanwhile, you can put these tips into practice to preserve a good balance between life and work.
The emergence of technology in daily life might help most employees, but it has also tied them to their jobs more than ever before.
More than half of U.S. employees check their work email during weekends, and some companies even require that employees do so, according to ABC News. If this describes you, it’s possible that your employer owes you overtime pay.
Including your cell phone number or email address on your work phone’s outgoing voicemail message invites people to call or email you outside of business hours, according to monster.com. You will likely feel that you have to respond immediately, which cuts into personal time away from work.
Whether your employer requires you to work on your own time without overtime pay, or simply suggests it, you can get help. According to Wall Street Journal Blogs, the FLSA requires companies to pay their employees for any overtime hours, even if they were voluntary.
If you are required to do any of the following, there may be an overtime issue:
- Reply to emails or phone messages regarding work from coworkers
- Respond to customer emails or phone calls
- Show up to work early without clocking in or leave several minutes or hours after clocking out
- Spend several minutes getting into and out of company uniforms each day
If these circumstances sound familiar, contacting an overtime lawyer to find out about a possible class action lawsuit is appropriate.
Browse our library to learn more about resources and information about overtime pay.
It is important to speak with an overtime attorney who specializes in employment law if you have questions regarding questionable employment practices. Whocanisue.com can help you find an experienced employment or overtime lawyer in your area to assist you with understanding employment laws, how to initiate a complaint, where you should file a claim, and what to expect in court.
You may have never heard of work-life balance, but it has a lot to do with the concept of overtime, which pays a worker time and a half for hours worked beyond the standard 40 a week. There are several reasons that receiving overtime pay should be important to you: your health, mental stability, and family life.
The idea of work-life balance has been around since the 1970s. It arose from a more competitive work environment, as Americans have increased the number of hours worked each week. According to the Barnard Center for Research on Women, Americans work the most hours out of any country, which makes labor laws particularly crucial.
More than 1/3 of male college graduates with jobs work over 50 hours per week, according to monster.com. It is difficult to include family events, social activities, and time for relaxation into the few hours that are free of work. Burnout is a result of a poor work-life balance, one that can cause exhaustion, depression, and even health issues such as heart disease.
If you can find a way to balance your work with your life, and are paid properly for overtime you may find due satisfaction and well-being. On the other hand, if your employer forces you to work without increased pay for over 40 hours a week, consult with an overtime lawyer immediately so you can obtain the compensation you are due.
Get more resources and information about overtime pay.
While the development of the smartphone seems like a benefit to employees, it has recently sparked a debate that centers on overtime. The question is whether employees who are required to check their email or messages during their time off should get overtime pay.
Whether you have a BlackBerry, PDA, or laptop that you use for work, you likely have an issue separating work time from free time. Your boss might also require you to check email and phone messages while off the clock, or you could simply be so overwhelmed at work that you have to take your job home with you.
Whatever the case, many employment attorneys claim that you need to be paid for every hour over 40 per week that you work, even when you’re at home.
Consider the recent cases centering on overtime pay:
T-Mobile allegedly required employees to respond to customer calls after work without getting paid overtime
- A maintenance worker sued CB Richard Ellis for being required to check his BlackBerry after he clocked out, according to ABC News
- A worker at Verizon Communications who had to be available on call via phone for 72 hours without receiving overtime pay
Those employees equipped with a BlackBerry work more than those without one – usually over 50 hours per week, according to Ars Technica. The road to getting compensated for your work might include a class action lawsuit, or possibly just receiving the wages you are owed.
Pelham Manor, NY:
Employees who have not been given adequate overtime pay can take heart. According to a City Room article at nytimes.com, from June 30, 2009, Lage Management Corporation agreed to pay $3.4 million to current and former employees to resolve the lawsuit. Plaintiffs alleged the company did not pay overtime, did not pay minimum wage and did not keep proper employment records. The company has already paid more than $1.3 million in 3 previous settlements. The nytimes.com City Room blog noted that the New York City office of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered more than $5.4 million for employees who alleged they were underpaid and overworked. Furthermore, it cited John Chavez, a spokesman for the Labor Department as saying that low-wage employees are vulnerable to exploitation because they are paid low wages and do not like to complain. Meanwhile, a July 2, 2009, article at chron.com, the online site for The Houston Chronicle, notes that approximately 50 Houston police officers have filed a lawsuit seeking overtime wages and compensation. The plaintiffs say they are not properly paid for the care they give to police canine units, including feeding, cleaning, grooming, transporting and caring for dogs that live in their homes. The police officers say this time goes above their 40-hour work week and the city should pay them overtime for the time spent caring for the dogs.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), found online at the Department of Labor website, sets out how much employers are required to pay employees who work overtime. The FLSA says that employees who are not considered exempt, “must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.” Sometimes, questions arise as to what constitutes “work” in a workday. The Fair Labor Standards Act was designed to protect employee rights and ensure that workers are paid fairly for the hours they put in. Whether an employer has knowingly or unknowingly violated the FLSA, workers have the right to make sure they are paid properly.
If you have an overtime legal claim let whocanisue.com find an employment lawyer in your area to help with your case.
It is not unusual to hear employees say they are not being paid fairly for hours worked, so it is no surprise to hear about Rite Aid overtime and the company’s alleged unfair overtime compensation. People who work at Rite Aid stores as assistant managers say Rite Aid overtime and Eckerd overtime are not properly compensated.
A major issue regarding exemption from overtime is what the assistant managers do in their job duties. The role of assistant manager can be complex, sometimes bridging the gap between hourly employees and management. Assistant managers are sometimes asked to step in when hourly employees do not show up for work, and pick up the slack if there is not enough staff in the store. Other times, assistant store managers may be required to fulfill administrative duties, such as setting hours, ensuring the store opens and closes on time and filling in for the store manager when the store manager is away. The issue of job duties is important because a person is exempt from overtime pay if his or her job duties consist mainly of administrative duties [among other requirements for exemption]. Non-managerial tasks include stocking or restocking shelves, working cash registers and cleaning the store.
Even for people on a salary, it is possible to determine an hourly rate of pay and multiply that by 1.5 to determine how much the employee should be paid for overtime hours.
Considering all the duties required of an assistant manager, it is not surprising that an assistant manager might routinely work well over 40 hours a week.
Rite Aid is certainly not the first company to face allegations that assistant managers were not properly compensated for working overtime. Earlier this year, a jury found in favor of more than 300 Staples assistant store managers in New Jersey who claimed they were illegally classified as exempt from overtime pay. The jury ordered Staples to pay $2.5 million to the plaintiffs, according to Connecticut Employee Rights Blog.
In 2008, Starbucks settled a lawsuit filed by an assistant store manager who claimed he was not paid for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The plaintiff claimed that the majority of his time at work was spent doing the work of hourly employees, including making drinks and cleaning the store. Starbucks also faced a federal suit in Florida, alleging the company misclassified its retail store managers as exempt from overtime pay.
In 2002, RadioShack agreed to pay up to $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of current and former RadioShack store managers and assistant managers. The plaintiffs in that lawsuit said they were improperly denied overtime pay. The truth is, to be exempt from overtime pay an assistant store manager must actually be in a position of authority and exercising managerial duties during the course of his job.
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