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Wages &
Overtime

Employees across the United States are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), which dictates minimum wage and overtime pay standards. These laws can be confusing. Many employees are exempt from these standards due to the nature of their jobs, but other employees are wrongly treated as exempt by their employers when they are in fact entitled to overtime pay. If you believe your employer’s pay practices violate the FLSA, then you may have a claim.

Wage & Hour Violations

State and federal employment laws govern the amount employers must pay their workers, both for regular work hours and overtime. State wage and hour laws also mandate that employers permit their employees to take regularly scheduled breaks, both paid and unpaid. When employers violate these laws, workers can take legal action to seek fair compensation for their lost wages and other damages. 

​Tennessee has not established a state minimum wage rate. But most employers in Tennessee are subject to the FLSA.  Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.  If covered by the overtime provisions in the FLSA, all hours worked over 40 in a workweek must be paid at one and a half times the regular hourly rate of pay. 

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Wage and Hour Law (FLSA) Examples:

  • Servers and Other Restaurant Workers
    (especially those who work for tips and are paid less than the minimum wage per hour)

  • Factory Workers

  • Auto Mechanics and Technicians

  • Cable and Satellite Television Installers and Technicians

  • Workers Required to Work Unrecorded and Unpaid Hours (“off the clock” work)

  • Workers Given “Comp Time” Instead of Overtime Pay

  • Workers Misclassified as Exempt from Overtime Pay

  • Licensed Practical Nurses and other nurses who are not Registered Nurses

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Holding Employers Accountable for Wage Theft

Employers commit wage theft in many ways. Just a few of the things that employers do to cheat workers out of earning the minimum wage and overtime pay are:

  • Failing to record and report all the hours people work,

  • Misclassifying workers as 1099 contractors instead of employees,

  • Taking away tips,

  • Requiring work off the clock,

  • Deducting pay without proper consent,

  • Telling tipped employees that they are not eligible to earn overtime, and

  • Misclassifying employees as exempt from overtime when they are actually non-exempt employees, eligible to receive overtime pay.

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If you are experiencing any of these, contact us for a confidential consultation.

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