Overtime Pay Calculations Law in Florida for Employees

Overtime is one of the benefits that non-exempt workers are paid in the state of Florida. This is money that is paid at 1.5 times a person’s regular wage for any hourly work that is done in excess of 40 hours each week. This payment is required to be given to non-exempt employees, but exempt employees are not owed this money if they work more than 40 hours in a week.

This is a common area of trouble for companies due to intentional disregard for non-exempt pay laws or various errors related to a misunderstanding of the pay laws in Florida and the rest of the US. The team at Lopez Law can help you with your case if you have not been paid the overtime that you were due. With years of experience in these kinds of cases, you can trust that the Lopez Law Group will be able to represent you with skill and attention to detail in any overtime pay calculation dispute.

What is Considered Overtime in the State of Florida?

In the state of Florida, a full week’s working schedule is 40 hours. These hours do not have to be worked Monday through Friday, and it does not mean that the employee has to be scheduled in a block of consistent working time from 8 am to 5 pm. Variable schedules exist in many industries, but non-exempt employees should still be paid overtime once they have worked 40 hours in a week.

This pay is also paid out at 1.5 times the normal rate of pay that a person receives. This is the standard for all overtime hours and reflects the overtime wage rates across most of the United States. Not every employee is eligible for overtime, and companies can sometimes make a variety of errors with regard to overtime pay. This can lead to staff being told that they were not eligible for the full overtime wage during the hours that they worked or that they are not entitled to any extra pay at all for working overtime.

Who Gets Overtime Pay in the State of Florida?

In Florida, non-exempt staff are paid overtime. These people are not paid a salary and have an hourly wage that they are contracted to receive for their work. There are a variety of requirements that non-exempt staff have to meet to be considered in this category by Florida state law. These requirements are:

•         Earning under $684 in a week or less than $35,568 in a year
•         Have a supervisor who looks at their work and directs their actions when they are working
•         Having job duties that include repetitive tasks, having a physical job, or completing repetitive office-based tasks.

There are also exempt employees, and these people typically earn a salary and they are often tasked with oversight of a few employees or a whole department. They might also get paid commission, or they could be working in divisions of a company like IT.

The rise of working from home after the pandemic has caused issues with misclassification due to employer misconceptions about the status of these employees. In most cases, these are not workers who should be classified as any different than any other non-exempt staff members.

How Are Overtime Wages Calculated in Florida?

As stated above, you should earn one and a half times your regular rate of pay when working overtime. Your rate of pay might vary depending on the job that you do, your seniority in the company, and various other factors. However, your overtime pay will always be 1.5 times that number. This is how non-tipped staff are compensated for working overtime.

Tipped employees, on the other hand, have to subtract the Florida state tip credit from their regular pay and overtime rates. In Florida, the tip credit is $3.02. This number has to be subtracted from your hourly rate as well as your overtime rate when calculating how much money you will make when you are working overtime.

This is because labor laws require that the state compensate tipped staff correctly to meet the state minimum wage. The combination of tips, overtime pay, and regular pay for these employees has to equal or exceed the state minimum wage. If it does not, the company will have to make up the difference to be sure that their staff are earning a living wage per state laws.

What is Daily Overtime?

Florida is not a daily overtime state. Overtime is not calculated in the state of Florida by a daily rate but is instead calculated based on the number of hours that a person has worked in a week. Anything that is in excess of 40 hours a week in overtime. There are a few states that don’t use the same system as Florida. If you have been living in these states, you might be confused by the lack of daily overtime involved in your calculations.

Do Florida Employers Have to Grant Breaks or Vacations to Staff?

It might surprise many people to find out that the state of Florida does not require that businesses allow break times or that they pay for vacation days for staff. This means that the vacation policy is up to your employer entirely, and they can craft it in whichever way they choose. However, there is a caveat to this and it is that if a company creates a time off policy and a break policy, they have to abide by it.

Companies cannot choose to offer some staff breaks and vacations and not others. They also cannot break federal law with regard to break times. Meal breaks have to be at least 30 minutes, and they are not paid. Breaks that are less than 20 minutes have to be paid.

Just like overtime being mandatory in the state of Florida, breaks and vacation plans that are offered to staff have to be observed or a company is breaking the law.

What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?

The FLSA is one of the guiding sets of laws and regulations that is used to govern Florida overtime laws. These federal laws were created to establish a consistent minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and employment standards across all the states. This set of laws is part of why employers in the state of Florida have to offer 1.5 times the normal rate of pay to someone who is working overtime.

The federal minimum wage varies, but states often set their own unique wage requirements to try and keep up with the cost of living as it climbs. Companies have to maintain the standards of the minimum wage payment that is set out by both state and federal requirements. Companies cannot create their own minimum wage pay standard and use it instead of FLSA standards.

FLSA laws also protect children against child labor, and they require that recordkeeping is done within companies to make staff aware of their rights. Companies have to display an FLSA informational poster, and they need to keep employee time and pay records as well.

The hours worked by staff include all the time that they are required to be on-site at their place of work. It is a common area of confusion that makes staff and employers believe that an employee is not actually on the clock when they are off the premises of the company. This is not always the case, and staff that drives deliveries to other locations, as well as staff that has left to run errands for the company, are considered to still be on the clock even off the premises.

Is There a Statute of Limitations on Unpaid Overtime?

Under FLSA rules, there are two years for people to report that they were not paid overtime they are owed. If willful violations are a factor in your case, the statute of limitations extends to three years. Employees have four years to file a lawsuit related to minimum wage violations.

Staff can file private suits and claim an equal amount that matches the liquidated damages, which can also take into consideration legal fees and court costs. This makes it possible for employees to secure the overtime that they are due as well as the costs of representation for their case. Without these assurances, many employees would not be able to afford to seek redress for these pay discrepancies.

Employees can also usually pursue incorrect pay lawsuits even if they signed a waiver. There are two situations where this is not true. If the waiver involves the Department of Labor or if there was a private lawsuit that is governed by court supervision, then your claim is considered to have been satisfied completely.

An experienced lawyer will know about the limitations of all of these situations and can provide you with guidance about the best options related to your situation. These cases can be complex and they require attention to detail as well experience to be pursued correctly. The team at Lopez Law has years of experience working with clients on these kinds of cases. You can count on the skill of your legal team and feel assured that the team will take care of your needs with skill.

What Can a Lawyer Do to Help?

If you have not been paid overtime that you are due for hours worked and your employer is not willing to investigate and provide the pay that you are due, it is time to secure a skilled lawyer to represent your case. Having an experienced legal professional working on your case can make all the difference when it comes to seeking a settlement that involves backpay.

In some cases, employers have unwittingly, or intentionally miscategorized staff so they can avoid paying overtime. This can be a common issue in the construction industry, as well as being a normal issue for those working in partnership with someone who is in sales. While you might help process documents for a sale of an item, you will typically not be exempt since you are not the actual salesperson.

The idea of FLSA requirements is that staff who do repetitive tasks with oversight and who are not professional, administrative, or supervisors will not be exempt. This is true across all industries, with very few exceptions. In some cases, specific industries do have employees who would otherwise be classified as hourly who are actually exempt.

When you work with a skilled lawyer, your job description, the contract that you signed when you were hired, and all of the other information about your pay, or lack thereof, will be investigated carefully. This ensures that the correct information will be on hand when seeking a settlement or heading to court. These kinds of cases are almost never resolved in court, but that does not mean that you should settle for a lawyer who does not have trial experience.

At the Lopez Law group, we have years of experience working on these cases. We are very familiar with Florida and federal law with regard to exempt and non-exempt staff, and we will ensure that the facts of your case are correctly presented. The overtime laws are not that complex when you have experience in working with them, which is why you can trust Lopez Law to work hard to ensure a good outcome for your case.

Working With a Skilled Lawyer Can Make a Big Impact on Your Case

Don’t settle for being paid incorrectly. Get a skilled lawyer to represent you as you seek to have your incorrect pay addressed. You are due back pay for the overtime that you worked, and your lawyer will also work hard to make sure that you are correctly categorized and that this mistake does not happen again and again.

Being sure that you can trust the expertise of your lawyer can make all the difference when it comes to your peace of mind. The team at Lopez Law are happy to tackle your overtime pay calculations issue and make sure that you get the money that you are owed. Contact us today, and let us get started representing your case.

See also:

• MINIMUM WAGE LAW IN FLORIDA FOR EMPLOYEES
• MISCLASSIFICATION AS EXEMPT LAW IN FLORIDA FOR EMPLOYEES