Atlanta Fair Labor Standards Act Lawyer

Skilled Fair Labor Standards Act Dispute Lawyers In Atlanta, Georgia

Our Atlanta Fair Labor Standards Act lawyers help employees who have been denied overtime or minimum wage compensation by their employers. Wage theft is unfortunately too common, but wage theft attorneys work to alleviate these issues by pursuing employers for damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers typically must pay overtime to all non-exempt employees. Non-exempt employees are, generally, employees who do not qualify under any of the FLSA’s numerous exemptions based on an analysis of their job duties and compensation. When an employer withholds overtime wages that are due, an FLSA lawyer like those at Weiner & Sand LLC works to recover the wages and other damages that are owed.

EXEMPTIONS

Most employees are owed overtime compensation unless they fall under one of the FLSA’s exemptions. The most common exemptions are:

THE EXECUTIVE EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee must be compensated on a salary basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684 per week; (2) the employee’s primary duty must be managing the enterprise, or managing a customarily recognized department or subdivision of the enterprise; (3) the employee must customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent; and (4) the employee must have the authority to hire or fire other employees, or the employee’s suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion or any other change of status of other employees must be given particular weight.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684 per week; (2) the employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and (3) the employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONAL EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684 per week; (2) the employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment; (3) the advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and (4) the advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

THE CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL EXEMPTION:

THE OUTSIDE SALES EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee’s primary duty must be making sales (as defined in the FLSA), or obtaining orders or contracts for services or for the use of facilities for which a consideration will be paid by the client or customer; and (2) the employee must be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place or places of business.

THE COMMISSIONED SALES EMPLOYEES EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee must be employed by a retail or service establishment, (2) the employee’s regular rate of pay must exceed one and one-half times the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked in a workweek in which overtime hours are worked, and (3) more than half the employee’s total earnings in a representative period must consist of commissions.

THE COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee must be compensated either on a salary or fee basis at a rate not less than $684 per week or, if compensated on an hourly basis, at a rate not less than $27.63 an hour; (2) the employee must be employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer or other similarly skilled worker in the computer field performing the duties described below; (3) the employee’s primary duty must consist of: (a)The application of systems analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine hardware, software or system functional specifications; (b) the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing or modification of computer systems or programs, including prototypes, based on and related to user or system design specifications; (c) the design, documentation, testing, creation or modification of computer programs related to machine operating systems; (d) a combination of the aforementioned duties, the performance of which requires the same level of skills.

THE MOTOR CARRIER EXEMPTION:

To be covered by this exemption and not owed overtime compensation, (1) the employee must be employed by a motor carrier or motor private carrier, as defined in 49 U.S.C. Section 13102; (2) a driver, driver’s helper, loader, or mechanic whose duties affect the safety of operation of motor vehicles in transportation on public highways in interstate or foreign commerce; and (3) not covered by the small vehicle exception.

There are several additional exemptions. If your job duties and compensation fall in one of these exemptions, you likely are not entitled to overtime compensation when you work more than forty hours in a workweek. However, if you do not qualify under one of these exemptions and your employer has failed to pay you overtime compensation when you work more than 40 hours in a workweek, please contact an overtime lawyer at Weiner & Sand LLC to discuss your rights.

Wage Theft Attorneys Enforce Minimum Wage Requirements

The Fair Labor Standards Act guarantees, for most employees, payment of at least the federal minimum wage for each hour worked. Effective July 24, 2009, through the present, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for non-exempt employees. In addition to the federal minimum wage, many states have their own minimum wage laws, some of which require employers to pay employees more than the federally-mandated $7.25 per hour. The Department of Labor provides a state-by-state listing. When an employer fails to pay an employee at least the minimum wage, wage theft attorneys like those at Weiner & Sand LLC work to recover the wages and other damages that are owed.

What this means for employees is if you work, for example, a 35 hour work week, you must receive at least $253.75 in wages for that week. This equates to $7.25 multiplied by 35 hours of work. There are a few exceptions to this rule – most notably for employees who receive part of their compensation in tips, such as servers – but your employer may be violating the FLSA if it pays you less than $7.25 per hour.

What Does Weiner & Sand LLC Do For Employees?

A Fair Labor Standards Act lawyer at Weiner & Sand LLC often files lawsuits against employers that deny employees the overtime and minimum wage compensation they are owed. In a lawsuit, Weiner & Sand LLC pursues for our clients not only the wages that our client is owed but also liquidated damages, which are typically calculated at two times the amount of wages owed. In addition, the Fair Labor Standards Act provides for attorneys’ fees to be paid to the prevailing employee, so oftentimes Weiner & Sand LLC will receive our attorneys’ fees from the employer, and not from the employee. Our FLSA lawyers use knowledge, skill, and trial experience to obtain jury verdicts and fair settlements for victims of wage theft. When employers refuse to be reasonable, we are not afraid to take cases to trial.

Our Atlanta Fair Labor Standards Act lawyers are available 24/7 to answer your questions. You can contact us by phone or by filling out our free consultation form. We never charge a fee until we win the case.

We get results.