Rhode Island Labor Law Attorneys

The FLSA Requires Non-exempt Employees to be Paid Overtime for Hours Worked in Excess of 40 Hours Per Week

The Fair Labor Standards Act is a law designed to protect employees from being exploited by employers. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, all hours an employee works in excess of 40 hours a week are to be paid at time and one-half, unless the employee is exempt from the overtime requirement. However, many employers willfully violate wage and hour laws to avoid paying overtime.

If you are an employee who is not receiving overtime pay, or who is being forced to work before or after your normal hours without pay, contact a highly skilled labor law attorney at Robinson & Clapham as soon as possible. We have helped many exploited workers successfully recover back wages, attorneys' fees and other damages in wage and hour claims against employers in the Providence area, and throughout Rhode Island.

Employers Cannot Get Around FLSA Requirements by Misclassifying Employees as Exempt

One of the most common ways employers attempt to get around paying overtime is by misclassifying workers as exempt employees who are not entitled to overtime pay. An exempt employee is a domestic worker, supervisor, or "independent thinker" who is in charge of his or her own job. Generally, exempt employees are professionals who are paid a yearly salary and are not paid by the hour.

For example, our labor law attorneys represented a scheduler who was classified as an independent thinker by her employer, and therefore not eligible for overtime payments. In our lawsuit, we proved that the scheduler was eligible for overtime pay because she had a boss who told her what to do - and therefore shouldn't have been classified as an independent thinker.

Demanding Fair Compensation for Overtime, Unpaid Wait Time, and Hours Worked Before and After Normal Work Hours

Overtime pay is only one of the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This federal law also covers the payment of incentives and commissions, employee chargebacks, and unpaid wait time. Unpaid wait time is any time that you are required to be at work before you are paid

In many cases, violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act affect several employees at a company. Our lawyers can handle these cases as class action lawsuits to compensate all victims of wage and hour law violations.

Your rights are our number one priority. So please do not hesitate to contact a wage and hour attorney at our Providence, Rhode Island law firm. We offer a free consultation to workers who think they have been harmed by violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.