Estimate Recovery from Class Action or Individual Claims
In a class action settlement, you may receive only 15%-25% of what you are actually owed.
Individual claims brought against employer for nonpayment of overtime wages can permit three to five (3x to 5x) times more recovery.
Generally, employees in the State of California who work more than 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day have had the right to receive premium pay for the hours worked over this limit. (See 1 Wilcox, Cal. Employment Law (rev. Mar. 1998) § 3.04, pp. 3-21 to 3-28.)
Employment Advertised as Hourly or Salary Pay?
Do you know if your employment position was advertised with a salary pay? However, you ultimately stayed later for time beyond your scheduled shifts, working overtime?
If your paystubs reflect the same amount of hours worked for every pay period without noting the hours you actually worked – your employer may be misclassifying you as an exempt salaried employee on the basis of title and job descriptions and without reference to actual work to avoid paying overtime.
Employers uniformly misclassify employees as exempt, but implement policies and practices that fail to afford true managerial discretion, and standardize their operations so that managers are obliged to spend over 50 percent of their time doing the same tasks as their subordinates. Ramirez v. Yosemite Water, Inc. (1999) 20 Cal.4th 785, 803, fn. 5, 85 Cal.Rptr.2d 844; 978 P.2d 2.
Salary and Exempt Employee Duties
A salaried status wage exceeding double the minimum wage is not a “salary” for persons employed in professional and technical occupations when pay varies according to the amount of hours worked. Cal. Lab. Code § 515(a).
To be exempt from hourly status, you must perform specified duties in a particular manner and be paid “a monthly salary equivalent to no less than two time the state minimum wage for full-time employment”.
An exempt administrative employee is any employee:
- Whose duties and responsibilities involve the performance of office or non-
manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations of his or her employer or his or her employer’s customers;
- Who customarily and regularly exercised discretion and independent judgment; and
- Who executes, under only general supervision, special assignments, and tasks, and
- Who is primarily engaged in duties which meet the test for the exemption.
- An administrative employee must also earn a monthly salary equivalent to no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment. Full-time employment means 40 hours per week as defined in Labor Code Section 515(c).
An exempt executive employee is any employee:
- Whose duties and responsibilities involve the management of the enterprise in
which he or she is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof; and
- Who customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more other employees
therein; and
- Who has the authority to hire or fire other employees or whose suggestions and
recommendations as to the hiring or firing and as to the advancement and promotion or any other change of status of other employees will be given particular weight; and
- Who customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment;
and
5. Who is primarily engaged in duties, which meet the test of the exemption.
6. An executive employee must also earn a monthly salary equivalent to no less than
two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment. Full-time employment means 40 hours per week as defined in Labor Code Section 515(c).
As a classified exempt employee, even if you work less hours in a pay period you must still be paid the same fixed rate of pay for those work weeks where you may have worked less.
Proper Compensation for Salary and Exempt Employees
Compensation schemes based upon the numbers of hours worked, with no guaranteed minimum is not a salary, and, therefore does not qualify the employee as exempt from overtime pay, paid ten minute rest breaks, and uninterrupted meal breaks.
A salaried wage status is a predetermined amount constituting all or part of an employee’s compensation, which amount is not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quality of the employees’ work performed.
A classified exempt employee must receive the full salary for any week in which the employee performs any work without regard to the number of days or hours worked.
A salary pay is a predetermined rate regardless of how many hours of work involved. Negri v. Koning & Assocs., 216 Cal. App. 4th 392, 156 Cal. Rptr. 3d 697 (2013)
In effect, receiving an unvarying minimum amount of pay because all paystubs state employee worked during each pay period exactly “80 hours” per week, may be a claim for misclassification and permit recovery from an employer failing to provide breaks, failure to pay minimum wage, failure to pay overtime, and/or failure to reimburse all expenses.
If you are classified as an exempt salaried employee who when working fewer hours and/or days makes less money then this is the same thing as saying you are not paid a predetermined amount that was not subject to reduction based upon the quantity of work performed. Therefore, you are being misclassified by your employer for your employer to avoid paying overtime.
To address your employment related concerns, we recommend that you reach out to our team today. You may call or text directly to (559) 431-4888 and (619) 399-7700 or send a message via email to Advice@WebbLawGroup.com.