What is the overtime law?
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What is the overtime law?
I get paid bi-weekly and I talked to my management about overtime pay because I have been working 2 weeks straight which is over 40 hours a week. And they told me the only way I qualify for
overtime is if I’ve been working 80 hours in those two weeks and anything over 80 hours is overtime and that even if I work 40 hours in the first week and the second week I work less than 40 hours I still won’t get overtime because it doesn’t match up to 80 hours in those 2 weeks. Is this correct? Can they do that – reject overtime because I didn’t work 80 hours in 2 weeks even if i had worked over 40 in the first?
Asked on May 14, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
They are incorrect: overtime is determined *by week*, not by pay period. Assuming you are not exempt from overtime (if you are paid on an hourly basis, you are not exempt--that is, hourly employees get overtime), then any time you work more than 40 hours in a week, the law (e.g. the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA) requires that you receive overtime (time-and-half) for all time worked past 40 hours. So, if you worked 50 hours in week 1 and 30 hours in week 2, you get 10 hours overtime for week 1. If your employer will not pay you this money, try contracting the departmet of labor; alternatively, you could sue for unpaid overtime.
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