Overtime: Who Gets it and When.
Jan
30
Written by:
1/30/2012 9:33 AM
The Law. Illinois Law provides that an employee is entitled to be paid 1.5 times her regular hourly rate for hours worked over 40 in a "workweek."
The workweek is not necessarily a standard week. It is any 168 consecutive hour period the employer says it is. For example, an employer can run its workweek from noon on Tuesday to noon the following Tuesday. But the employer is not allowed to avoid overtime by changing its definition of the workweek.
If you think you are not being paid your overtime, check your paystubs for your employer’s definition of the workweek and the hours you worked during that period.
No overtime for certain jobs/industries. The overtime rules do not apply to some industries/jobs including salesmen, mechanics, agriculture workers, some commissioned employees, and people working as executives and professionals.
Not paid an hourly rate? If an employee who is entitled to overtime pay – because she worked more than 40 hours during the workweek - is not paid an hourly rate, there are rules for determining how to calculate the overtime rate. A few examples:
Paid a piece rate: The employee’s regular hourly rate is calculated by adding up all the amounts earned during the workweek and dividing that by the hours worked. The employee then gets an additional .5 times this rate for each hour of overtime. If the employee earns $10 for each widget made, makes 100 widgets during the workweek but it took her 50 hours to do so, her regular hourly rate is ($10x100)÷50 which equals $20. So in addition to receiving the $1,000 for the piece work the employee is entitled to $10 for each hour worked over 40, which is $100.
Paid a day rate: The employee’s regular rate is calculated by adding up all the amounts paid during the workweek and dividing that by the hours worked. The employee then gets .5 times this rate for each hour of overtime. So if an employee agrees to be paid $800 per day but ends up working 12 hour days her regular hourly rate is (5 x 800) ÷ 60 which equals $66.67. Her overtime pay for that week would be 20 x (66.67/2)=$666.67.
What to do. An employee who has not been paid the correct amount of overtime can file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor or file a lawsuit in county court. With the lawsuit, the successful litigant will get her overtime, reasonable attorney’s fees, costs to litigate and damages of 2% of the amount underpaid for each month the earned overtime was withheld.
For more information about this and other employee rights topics, please contact the author: Brian D. Moore by phone at 630-355-5577 or by email brian@moorelawpc.com
This article is intended to provide friends and clients with general information regarding the subject matter covered. This article is not, and does not contain, legal advice. This article may be considered attorney advertising.