The Law on Unpaid Overtime in Minnesota.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA) mandate that employers pay employees time and a half for overtime worked.
When is overtime pay required under Minnesota law and federal law?
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act says that employers need to pay employees time and half for all hours over 40 that they work in a week.
The Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act says that employers need to pay Minnesota employees time and half for all hours over 48 that they work in a week.
You’re entitled to the protection of both federal and state overtime law. So if your employer isn’t paying you overtime for hours over 40, then you’ve got an overtime claim against your employer.
Sometimes these claims are easy to spot, like when your employer is just paying regular time even for hours worked over 40.
But you may also have overtime claims in cases of off the clock work. If your employer is making you work off the clock, and your off the clock time combines with your on the clock time to bring you over 40 hours in a week, then your employer owes you overtime for those hours. Off the clock time includes when your employer tells you to:
- Be at work at least 10 minutes before the start of your shift, but don’t punch in until your shift starts;
- Put on certain equipment or your uniform before punching in – these are called “donning” claims;
- Take off your equipment or uniform while off the clock – these are called “doffing claims;
- Continue working off the clock at the end of your shift if you didn’t meet your performance goals for the day; or
- Tell you to come in on a weekend or early morning and work off the clock to meet performance goals.
If your employer made you work off the clock, then you may have an overtime claim. To understand whether you have a claim, take the number of hours that you actually worked in a week (not just the hours that you were paid for). If that number is greater than 40, then you likely have an unpaid overtime claim.
What if my employer classified my job as salary and says I’m exempt from overtime?
It’s true that certain jobs are considered “exempt” from overtime rules – that means that employers don’t need to pay overtime to “exempt” employees who work over 40 hours. Jobs exempt from overtime pay include:
- Employees of certain seasonal amusement or recreational establishments (think: State Fair or carnivals);
- Employees of certain small newspapers;
- Farm workers employed on small farms;
- Babysitters;
- Highly compensated employees who do office work (or other non-manual work) and make $100,000 or more each year;
- Auto, truck, or farm salespersons and mechanics;
- Railroad and airline employees, taxi drivers, and certain employees of motor carriers; and
- “White collar” employees who perform management, administrative, or executive duties.
But employers often misclassify employees as salaried or exempt when they shouldn’t. For example, some employers try to classify secretaries as exempt because they perform administrative work. But for the administrative exception to apply, the employee’s primary duty must include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance – most secretaries wouldn’t meet that test and therefore qualify for overtime pay.
If your employer misclassified you as a salaried employee or exempt employee, then you likely have a good overtime claim, because your employer owes you time and a half for all hours that you worked over 40.
To calculate your hourly rate, take your weekly salary and divide it by 40 – that’s your rate. Your employer owes you time and half of that amount for all hours that you worked over 40.
How do I prove my overtime claim if I don’t have records of the hours I worked?
Your employer is required by state and federal law to keep accurate records of all hours that you worked.
But, of course, sometimes employers don’t comply with the law, especially if they’re making employees work off the clock.
Of course it is fantastic evidence if you keep records of the hours that you worked off the clock – the more detailed the better. If you can, keep a diary with the date, time you started work, and the time you ended. That is very powerful evidence in a minimum wage or overtime case.
However, the law recognizes that most employees can’t do that and places the burden on employers to keep accurate records of hours worked by employees. Therefore, when an employee can show that an employer’s records are not accurate – by testifying that employees had to work off the clock – then the law allows employees to estimate the amount of time they worked off the clock in their testimony and submit that to the jury.
What Kind of Damages Can I Get for Unpaid Overtime Claims?
For minimum wage and overtime claims, you can get the actual amount that you’re owed in minimum wage and overtime, plus an equal amount as liquidated damages. So you basically get twice the amount of actual damages that you’re owed. Additionally, your employer will be required to pay your attorney fees and costs of litigation, plus interest on the amount of wages it owed you.
What is an average unpaid overtime case worth?
There’s not really an “average” type of case – the value of each case depends on its own facts. Some of the factors it depends on are:
- How strong is liability? E.g, Can we prove that your employer broke the law?
- How strong are damages? How much unpaid overtime did you work? Are there other employees who were also shorted overtime?
- Collectability. Is your employer a large corporation with the capacity to pay a large judgment?
Representative Case
We represented “Michelle” and 24 of her peers in a case against Regency Beauty Institute. Michelle and her coworkers worked for Regency as Admissions Representatives – essentially a “call center” type position that required them to call prospective students all day, inform them about Regency, and encourage them to seek admission. Though Michelle and her coworkers regularly worked 45-55 hours per week, Regency paid them all on a salary basis to avoid paying overtime. Madia Law won collective class certification of the suit pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allowed 24 of Michelle’s fellow coworkers to join the suit. After over a year of discovery, the parties settled the case for an average recovery of approximately $8,500 to each plaintiff.
The Fair Labor Standards Act mandates that employers pay non-exempt employees at least minimum wage for all hours worked, and time and a half for all hours worked over 40 per week. It also allows employees to proceed collectively against their employer to recover their wages. The Fair Labor Standards Act absolutely prohibits “off the clock” work – if your employer requires you to work “off the clock” or perform any work without pay, then you may have a claim. The Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act supplements the federal protections offered by the Fair Labor Standards Act to guarantee protections to Minnesota employees regarding overtime pay, minimum wage, and unlawful deductions.
What is the statute of limitations for unpaid overtime claims?
Under both state and federal law, the statute of limitations for unpaid overtime and minimum wage claims is 2 years; and 3 years if we can prove willfulness by your employer. That basically means we need to show that your employer was reckless in disregarding the law – then we can go back 3 years for your damages.
Can My Employer Fire Me if I Make a Claim for Unpaid Overtime?
No. The Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act both contain anti-retaliation provisions. If your employer terminates you for making a report or complaint of unfair or improper pay practices, then you’ve got a retaliation case in addition to your unpaid overtime case.
What Should I do if my Employer isn’t Paying Overtime, or Making Me Work Off the Clock?
First of all, we’re sorry that you’re in this position. We know how hard you work, and you deserve to be paid for all of the hard work you do for your employer.
Second, call us to talk about your case.
Contact Our Minneapolis and St. Paul Unpaid Overtime Lawyers.
You must act quickly when it comes to employment claims. If you wait, there may be strict statutes of limitation that will bar you from filing any claim at all against your employer. Call Madia today to discuss your case.
First, contact our office and tell us about your situation. You’ll talk with our staff for about 5-10 minutes. They’ll get some basic information about you and your case.
There’s some information that we’ll need when you call. We will want to know who you worked for, what kind of work you did, for how long you worked there, how much you earned, if/when you were terminated, the reason given by your employer for any discipline and termination, and why you think your employer did something unlawful or wrongful. If you have this information handy, it will allow us to proceed more quickly.
We will get back to you shortly – usually within a few hours. If your potential case is a little outside of our wheelhouse, we may refer you to attorneys, agencies, or organizations that we think might be better suited to handle your situation. Our goal is to ensure you get the best and most appropriate help possible for your particular situation. If that’s not us, we’ll try to tell you immediately and point you in the right direction.
If we think that we might be able help you, we’ll set an appointment for you to talk with one of our employment lawyers. We’ll discuss your case, and give you our honest assessment of its strengths, weaknesses, and value. If we then mutually agree that Madia will represent you, we will talk about the process of moving forward with your case.
When you talk with our employment lawyers, please be sure to have all relevant documents that you have in your possession. For example, that could include: pay-stubs, personnel files, employment handbooks/policies, letters from your employer (including your termination letter), any text messages or emails that you think are important, and any other documents that you think might be helpful.
