Honest Wages
FAQ
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How can the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) help me?
The FLSA is known as a remedial statute and its enactment by Congress is meant to create a fair playing field for employees and for businesses who pay their employees legal wages. The FLSA works to remedy the loss of an employee’s wages and deny employers’ gains from unfair competition. The FLSA allows employees to file a private lawsuit against their employer when their employer has failed to pay proper minimum wages, overtime wages or any wages at all. If your rights under the FLSA are violated, its protections may afford you substantial recovery for your lost wages. The FLSA contains a liquidated damages provision, which is almost always enforced, resulting in the recovery of $2 for every $1 of wages that were not paid to you.
The FLSA requires the employer to pay the prevailing employees’ reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, so that the responsibility for the payment of legal fees falls on the employer who has violated the law, not you.
Do the overtime provisions of the FLSA apply to me?
As a non-exempt employee you are entitled to time-and-a-half compensation (1.5) of your base hourly rate of pay. For any week that you have worked more than forty (40) hours, you must be paid overtime one-and-a-half (1.5x) for each hour over forty (40) hours that you worked. Even if your employer claims you are an exempt employee, it is a regular occurrence for employers to wrongly try to exempt their employees from the FLSA. It is not your employer’s classification that makes you an exempt employee, but the provisions of the FLSA as applied. You may wish to consult with an attorney to help you determine your status under the FLSA.
Can I sign away and waive my rights under the FLSA?
NO. No matter what your employer may have asked you to sign, your rights under the FLSA cannot be waived. Your employer cannot enter into private agreements which will defeat the FLSA. The FLSA is a remedial statute that Congress intended to apply for the benefit of America’s economy, labor market, and industry. It cannot be signed away by private parties, so even if you signed something, you are still protected by the FLSA.
What about state laws?
Many states and some municipalities (i.e., Maryland and the District of Columbia) have their own wage and hour laws that are similar or have slightly different protections than the FLSA. States can only offer similar or additional protections to your wage and hour law rights and remedies, they cannot deny your rights under the FLSA. In many instances the state laws are more helpful than the FLSA. For example, in Washington, DC a worker may recover up to 4 times the amount of late or unpaid wages.