Contact Our Overtime Pay Attorneys To Evaluate Your Case
Millions of Americans are currently working jobs that allow for overtime benefits. These men and women want to ensure they get what’s owed to them when they work beyond the typical 8-hour shift. But too many companies try to cheat their employees out of overtime pay through a wide variety of means. These violations cost employees millions of dollars each year and go unpunished the vast majority of the time. At Mann & Elias, it’s our priority to stop these violations.
What Are Overtime Violations?
Overtime violations are a broad category of workplace offenses that include any action designed to help a company avoid paying overtime funds that they owe. In almost all instances, companies want to get away with paying their employees as little as possible. The rule of overtime challenges this effort. State laws mandate that companies pay their employees one and a half times their original salaries for any hours they work over 40 hours a week. To avoid paying these funds, companies will take a wide variety of dubious and often illegal steps. They sometimes simply refuse to pay a person for the hours they worked.
Some companies shift hours from one week to another in order to keep each weekly total under 40. Other companies will classify their employees incorrectly in hopes of avoiding these requirements. If you’re unsure whether you’re exempted from overtime rules, or meet all requirements, consult with a LA overtime violations attorney. Many companies will lie and misconstrue the nature of their employees’ work to help them meet these guidelines. No matter the tactic, these actions create severe forms of theft and should be prosecuted vigorously by law enforcement and overtime dispute lawyers in Los Angeles.
Possible Proof
There are many possible pieces of proof that an individual can use to help attorneys make an overtime case. One of these is a log of when an individual worked corresponding to their pay stubs. But many companies are too crafty to be caught with simple pay logs. There may not be any paper record that a person was being paid unfairly and in an excessive way. A person may have to get creative in their retrieval of evidence.
Accounting departments or Human Resources are a great place to start. They can help you pull and cross-reference your timesheets, pay stubs, and financial documents to verify that you are working more than getting paid. They can also establish that you’re in a category of employees who should get paid overtime. Such a determination is sometimes subjective but can be proven in court in severe cases. Finally, some states allow a person to record conversations with their bosses or other employees that may point to severe overtime violations. These recordings usually get thrown out in court. A person must treat them carefully and ensure that they are following all local guidelines before making them.
What To Do
Anyone who thinks they are the victim of an overtime violation needs to start collecting evidence as quickly as possible before hiring legal representation. They should not immediately quit their job. Instead, they should start looking into the situation and gather as much evidence as they can. Individuals should save email correspondence and consider taking home any evidence that may incriminate their bosses that belongs to them. Then, they should enlist the help of an employment attorney in Los Angeles. Your attorney will advise you on what to do next and which agencies to submit an official report to.
With a workplace lawyer, an individual has several options. Their first step should always be to contact the offending party and attempt to settle. This settlement would often involve an apology and/or payment of back pay in addition to money for missing those wages. In such a case, a person may even keep their job at a company. This scenario is best for individuals who sincerely believe that the wage loss was due to an innocent error in the company.
The next step is to contact a government agency. Each state has a department of labor that can help with these issues. Many states also have local boards that are empowered to deal with this sort of violation. Government boards will often take on a case and decide one way or another on fines and the payment of lost wages. If these administrative actions do not work, individuals can take the case to the district court. District courts will decide on payments and potential penalties. Going to court is incredibly expensive for both parties. At Mann & Elias, we often try as hard as we can to settle before the case reaches such a severe stage.
Conclusion
Overtime violations are a serious form of a wage law violation. The victim will often need legal assistance to sue an employer for unpaid wages. These actions involve pure theft of money that is legally owed to an individual. No matter the situation, these violations need to be pursued vigorously by a specialized lawyer that can aid this process greatly. It can mean the difference between success or failure for anyone who has been robbed of overtime compensation.