New York Overtime Wages Lawyers Recover Rightful Compensation for Overworked Employees

Standing beside employees who unlawfully refused overtime wages by their employers.

Our country began adopting the current overtime wage laws over seventy five years ago to protect businesses from taking advantage of the workforce. However, businesses still disregard the rights of employees and fail to pay them the wages that they have already worked for.  At Hepworth, Gershbaum & Roth, PLLC, our attorneys are sympathetic to employees that work hard to provide for their families and have employers that are not paying them for the time that was worked. Our approach to overtime wages litigation has made us a leading employee rights law firm in New York and throughout the country.

What are the New York and federal standards for overtime pay?

The federal standard for overtime pay is based on the number of hours worked in a seven day period—not the number of hours worked in any particular day (although some states have adopted a daily overtime standard). With the exception of some types of employees, a person that works for a company more than 40 hours in a work week is entitled to be paid an additional 50% of their normal wage per hour for each hour worked over the 40. Companies have often tried to take advantage of the overtime employee exceptions to avoid paying your wages. Our experienced New York City based overtime wage lawyers are here to help you evaluate whether you are eligible for overtime or any wages that were not paid so that you can get the full pay you deserve for the hours you have worked.

Common ways businesses avoid paying overtime wages to employees

Corporations in New York and throughout the country have become increasingly clever in finding ways to avoid paying their employees the full pay they deserve for their hard work. Our New York overtime wages lawyers take corporations to court to make them pay their employees what they are owed. Our high success rate has come from our ability to demonstrate to the court that the company has broken the law.

• Classifying employees as managers — Companies have started “promoting” employees to “assistant manager” positions calling the position managerial and paying a flat salary instead of paying hourly wages. In return, the employees often are required to work substantially more than 40 hours every week and are still performing mostly non-managerial tasks all with no overtime pay. Retailers are often the biggest abusers of this practice and can be held liable for not paying overtime wages.  

• Pressuring not to claim the correct number of hours worked — Dishonest employers sometimes pressure  their employees to not claim that they have worked as many hours as they with the implied threat that getting overtime pay will endanger their employment.  This can include deducting a lunch hour from your pay check, when in reality, you never or only rarely took lunch or telling employees to clock in late or clock out early while still doing work.  Businesses often take advantage of employees by this sort of intimidation.  However, the law can and does protect you from these threats while getting you the compensation you deserve.

• Docking hours from timesheets — It is against New York law to dock hours off of an employee’s timesheet as punishment for making a mistake on the job.

• Purposely not adding overtime wages onto payroll — It is important to keep track of the number of hours you work each week and make sure that your company is paying you accurately. Businesses have tried to take advantage of employees not paying attention to their checks to avoid paying the time and a half that is owed for working overtime. The law places the burden on accurate record keeping squarely on the employer

Speak with a New York unpaid wage and overtime lawyer today to discuss your rights for compensation against your employer

The attorneys of Hepworth, Gershbaum & Roth, PLLC encourage you to speak with an attorney right away if your employer has underpaid you for your overtime work. You may be entitled to significantly more monetary damages than you may expect. For a FREE initial consultation, contact us online or call us at 212-545-1199 to schedule an appointment.