What constitutes overtime in NY?
New York overtime is a hotly contested area and is the focus of many lawsuits by employees who have been denied overtime pay or have been misclassified as an exempt employee who is not entitled to overtime pay. These are the two most common forms of overtime in NY litigation.
The first category is denial of overtime. An employee working in New York is entitled to overtime for any hours worked beyond 40 in a week. This means that in a 7 day week, you are entitled to one and half times pay for any hour that you work that is in excess of 40 hours. The one and a half times pay is based on your regular rate of pay of base salary. It will not typically include commissions, bonuses or other compensation. Our overtime lawyers will meet with you and discuss in detail your situation and determine whether you have been denied overtime in NY, the amount of compensation that you will be entitled to receive based on the denial of overtime, and we will review any time sheets or other evidence demonstrating the amount of overtime that was worked. Your employer is required to keep track of your time and, if they fail to do so, your testimony of evidence of the hours worked will be controlling to demonstrate the amount of overtime pay that you would be entitled to receive.
The second category is whether you are properly classified as an exempt employee. Please keep in mind that there are various laws that apply to overtime pay on both the State and Federal levels. For example, the Federal overtime law is the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) which contains certain exemptions to overtime with the main three being executive employees, administrative professionals, and professional employees. There are numerous other categories that are exempt but only involve a small subset of employees (i.e. taxicab drivers, part-time babysitters, etc.). The New York State Labor laws go beyond the FLSA and require overtime pay for employees of charter schools, private schools, non-profits, and non-teachers working in schools.
You can calculate the amount of severance pay being offered by using this simple and straight forward calculation. Take your regular rate of pay (i.e. $14.00) and multiply it by 1.5. This will provide you with the overtime rate. Based on this example, you would be entitled to a payment of $21.00 for every hour worked over 40. If you have been denied overtime pay and filed a lawsuit, you may be able to recover double the amount that was denied to you. You may also be able to recover your attorneys’ fees and costs of suit along with interest on the overtime pay that had been denied.
It can be very complicated to determine whether you are entitled to overtime pay and what constitutes overtime in NY. Accordingly, it is critical that you speak with an experienced NY overtime lawyer to assess your potential case and determine the amount of overtime that has been denied and whether you are exempt from overtime pay. Please contact our NY overtime lawyers to discuss your potential matter.