Worked more than 40 hours but did not receive proper overtime pay? The Lacy Employment Law Firm helps New Jersey employees understand their wage rights, review pay records, and pursue compensation that may be legally owed.
Some employers fail to pay overtime openly. Others hide the problem through inaccurate timecards, off-the-clock work, improper salary classifications, altered schedules, or payroll calculations that leave out bonuses and other compensation.
You may have an unpaid overtime claim even if your employer says you are salaried, calls you an independent contractor, or requires approval before working extra hours. What matters is how you are actually paid, what work you perform, and how many hours your employer knew or should have known you worked.
Our New Jersey employment lawyers can review your work history and help determine whether your employer followed state and federal overtime laws.
NEW JERSEY PRACTICE AREAS
Your employer may be underpaying you by:
New Jersey requires employers to keep accurate records of employees’ daily and weekly hours, earnings, wage rates, and deductions. When an employee works outside a fixed schedule, the employer must record the hours actually worked.
The New Jersey Wage and Hour Law generally requires covered employees to receive one and one-half times their regular hourly rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a seven-day workweek. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, commonly called the FLSA, provides similar overtime protections. Certain employees may be exempt, but an employer cannot avoid overtime simply by giving someone a salary or job title.
Your regular rate may include more than your basic hourly wage. Depending on how you are paid, commissions, shift differentials, and certain nondiscretionary bonuses may need to be considered when calculating overtime.
The Lacy Employment Law Firm can help you:
Depending on the facts and the laws involved, a worker may be able to seek unpaid overtime, additional damages, legal costs, and attorney’s fees. No result is automatic, and the available remedies depend on the evidence and legal claims.
Many employees are told they cannot receive overtime because they are managers, professionals, administrators, or salaried workers. That explanation may be incomplete.
To qualify for many overtime exemptions, an employee must satisfy specific requirements involving compensation and actual job responsibilities. A title such as “manager,” “supervisor,” or “coordinator” does not control the outcome if the employee mainly performs nonexempt work and lacks genuine authority.
New Jersey guidance also confirms that salaried workers may still be nonexempt and entitled to overtime after 40 hours.
A lawyer can examine what you did each day, how much discretion you exercised, whether you supervised other employees, and how your employer calculated your pay.
Keep copies of any information showing when you worked and how you were paid, including:
Do not remove confidential business information that you are not authorized to possess. Preserve records already available to you and speak with an attorney about the safest way to document your hours.
We help workers evaluate overtime concerns arising in workplaces across North, Central, and South Jersey, including Newark, Jersey City, Edison, Trenton, Camden, Cherry Hill, and surrounding communities.
Unpaid overtime can affect employees in healthcare, hospitality, construction, transportation, retail, warehouses, professional services, home care, restaurants, and many other industries. Your occupation alone does not determine whether you qualify for overtime. Your employment relationship, pay structure, job duties, and actual working hours must be reviewed together.
Most covered, nonexempt employees are entitled to one and one-half times their regular rate after working more than 40 hours in a seven-day workweek. Working more than eight hours in one day does not generally trigger New Jersey overtime by itself. Certain exemptions and industry-specific rules may apply.
Yes. Receiving a salary does not automatically remove your right to overtime. Salaried employees may still be nonexempt if their compensation or actual job duties do not satisfy the legal requirements for an exemption.
An employer may have a policy requiring advance approval, but that does not necessarily allow the employer to withhold payment for work it required, permitted, knew about, or should have known was being performed. The employer may address a policy violation separately, but covered working time generally must still be recorded and paid.
Do not assume that missing records prevent you from bringing a claim. Other evidence may help establish your hours, including schedules, messages, calendars, login data, witness accounts, and your own consistent notes. New Jersey employers are responsible for maintaining accurate wage and hour records.
New Jersey law generally allows claims involving unpaid overtime that arose within six years before an action is started. Federal claims may follow different deadlines, and waiting can make records and witnesses harder to locate. Speak with an attorney promptly to determine which deadline applies to your situation.
Employers generally cannot punish an employee for raising a wage complaint, contacting the New Jersey Department of Labor, participating in a wage proceeding, or informing coworkers about their wage rights. Retaliation may include termination, reduced hours, demotion, discipline, or other adverse treatment.
