Did you know that federal and state laws protect workers from an employer failing to pay proper overtime wages. It’s true. The rules governing overtime pay in the State of Georgia include both state and federal laws. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal law, protected and provides a minimum standard for employees across the U.S. for overtime pay. Here, we will go into more detail about how to properly calculate overtime pay, protections provided for by the FLSA relating to overtime pay, as well as what employers and employees are covered by FLSA protections.
How Do You Calculate Overtime Pay?
Overtime pay is required for employees working over 40 hours and the rate of pay is 1.5 times the employee’s standard pay. Compensation for overtime in the form of comp time is only permitted for government employees. The FLSA rules are applicable to employers who are engaged in interstate commerce or have gross volume business or sales of $500,000 or more.
This is actually quite broad coverage. Employers who engage in interstate commerce includes jobs that involve regularly handling the mail, as well as using the phone or internet, processing credit card transactions, or shipping goods across state lines.
Georgia Provides FLSA Coverage
The State of Georgia also provides FLSA coverage for certain classes of employees including those working in businesses that operate hospitals, or institutions that care for the sick, elderly, or mentally ill that live on the premises. There is also coverage for public agencies as well as housekeepers, full-time babysitters, and other domestic staff if they earn a minimum of $1,700 from a single employer in a calendar year.
What all this means is that the majority of Georgia workers are entitled to overtime pay when they work over 40 hours in a week. The main exceptions being employees in executive, administrative, or professional roles that are paid at least $455 week on a salary basis. These minimum salary requirements, however, will be changed effective January 2020.
Understanding Overtime Laws in Georgia
It is important to note that there is no mandatory overtime for working more than eight hours in a day, only over 40 hours in a week. Calculating overtime pay will vary depending on how you are compensated. If you are an hourly employee, you should receive overtime compensation equal to 1.5 times your normal hourly rate.
If you are an hourly worker that earns bonuses and commission, then your base rate will be calculated by totaling the hours times the hourly rate plus the workweek equivalent of your bonuses or commission and divided by the total hours in the workweek.
Overtime pay will then be 1.5 times this regular rate. If you are a salaried employee, your regular rate is calculated by your salary divided by the number of hours that your salary is intended to cover. You should then be compensated for overtime pay by 1.5 times that regular hourly rate.
Employment Law Attorneys
If you think that you may have been improperly compensated for overtime work, talk to the employment law attorneys at Pankey & Horlock. You may be missing out on hard earned money and there is a 2 year statute of limitations on your ability to collect unpaid overtime. Contact us today.