One federal employment law applies to most employers—the Fair Labor Standards Act. Among other things, the FLSA establishes standards for overtime pay. Under the FLSA, an employee is entitled to receive overtime pay at the rate of one and one-half of the employee’s regular rate of pay for time worked in excess of forty hours each work week. The FLSA exempts certain employees from its overtime pay provisions, such as executive, administrative, and professional employees. An employer must understand these classifications and use them properly so that the employer does not wrongfully fail to compensate employees who are entitled to receive overtime pay.
Many employees are exempt from the overtime pay provisions because they are considered to be “executive employees.” To qualify for the executive employee exemption, the employee must: (1) be paid on a salary basis at a rate of at least $455 per week; (2) have a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a department or subdivision of the enterprise; (3) customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees; and (4) have the authority to hire and fire other employees or have suggestions regarding these matters given particular weight.
For more information about the FLSA or to speak with a Dallas employment law attorney regarding overtime pay concerns, contact the employment law attorneys at Clouse Dunn Khoshbin LLP at [email protected].
