Overtime Pay

Are you confused about whether you are entitled to overtime pay? All employees—including salaried employees—and many workers labeled as "independent contractors" are entitled to overtime pay equal to at least 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, unless they are specifically “exempt.”

Some employers intentionally violate overtime law to pad their bottom-line because they recognize the difficulties that employees face trying to understand whether they are entitled to overtime pay. But employers do so at great risk.

The exemptions to the overtime pay requirements are few and the penalties for violating an employee’s overtime rights, even for mistakes, are severe. If you regularly work more than 40 hours per workweek and don’t receive overtime pay, you may be owed thousands of dollars in unpaid overtime plus penalties, interest, and attorneys’ fees.

So how do you find out if you are entitled to overtime pay? We've prepared some general guidelines below to help you understand your overtime pay rights. We've also expanded our web content on Overtime Pay. However, the only true way to find out if you are eligible for overtime pay is to contact a law firm that specializes in Texas overtime pay and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Dallas overtime lawyer Barry Hersh explains overtime pay rights in plain English and aggressively represents employees wrongfully denied overtime pay or misclassified as an independent contractor to avoid paying overtime wages. Hersh Law Firm is available to pursue overtime pay claims for employees all over Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, El Paso, and San Antonio.

To learn whether you should be receiving overtime pay, submit your information here for a free evaluation.

• Almost all employees who earn less than $23,660 per year automatically are entitled to overtime pay.
• Non management employees who perform construction, maintenance, installation, repair, production, restaurant, kitchen, clerical, and secretarial work generally always are entitled to overtime pay.
• With few exceptions, all hourly employees are entitled to overtime pay.
• Except for employees who regularly work outside the office or travel, most commissioned employees are entitled to overtime pay.
• Most salaried employees are entitled to overtime pay:
  • Employees who earn a salary of less than $455 per workweek always are entitled to overtime.
  • Salaried employees who earn $455 per workweek or more still are entitled to overtime pay unless his/her job duties fall within one of the narrowly-defined overtime exemptions, such as the executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, or computer-related employee exemptions.
• Job titles never determine whether you are entitled to overtime pay, but certain jobs almost always qualify for overtime pay:  paralegals, file clerks, administrative assistants, inside sales, call center, customer service representatives, IT/help desk, IT “tier-one” support, accounts payable/account receivable representative, and more.