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One of the primary laws dealing with overtime in the U. S. is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which was passed in 1937. The United States adopted the Act in order to set certain wage standards and guidelines for employers. The FLSA requires that employees who work overtime be paid for the additional time they have worked beyond the standard 40 hour work week. In addition to the FLSA, the state of Florida also has a separate set of regulations that employers must follow when it comes to paying overtime for their employees.

In Florida, overtime wage payments are structured to go along with the U.S. guidelines. Often, though, an employer may ask an employee to do something that seems innocent, such as requesting them to check company email or answer an office-related text message over their lunch break, or maybe staying a few minutes late so they can wrap up a meeting. They may require employees to set up or put away equipment before or after normal working hours or may not pay for time spent on legally mandated breaks. If this has happened to you and you are a non-exempt employee, you may be entitled to an overtime wage claim in Florida. All of this unpaid time can add up, too: if you only work an extra 20-30 minutes a day doing these “extras”, that means you are working unpaid for at least two hours a week. Figured at .00 an hour over a two year period, your employer could owe you ,500.00! Most “salaried” employees are entitled to an overtime wage payment! In many cases, being paid a salary just means the employee gets paid the same amount of money each week. Your status as an exempt or non-exempt employee is what determines your eligibility for overtime pay. Some employees work over a two-week pay period that adds up to an average of forty hours a week (an example would be when you work 35 hours in one week and 45 hours in the second week). It is not allowable for an employer to average your work hours between two weeks to determine overtime pay. In cases like this, you may be entitled to overtime pay for the second week if you are a non-exempt employee. Employers can not give you comp time off instead of paying you overtime wages. This is a violation of the FLSA. The FLSA and the Florida wage laws prohibit employers from punishing or firing an employee who has asserted his or her rights to overtime wages. The FLSA allows employees two years to file an overtime lawsuit or three years if the employer’s violation was willful. Employees and former employees should file a claim with a Florida overtime wage attorney as soon as possible after a suspected violation so the attorney can put the strongest possible case together.

Even though the FLSA is supposed to provide regulations that provide that all employees are treated fairly, some employers routinely fail to pay their employees overtime pay, even if they do not intentionally try to get out of doing it. The overtime wage laws are confusing and complex – it is easy for employers to either misinterpret the FSLA or try to get around the law to avoid paying their employees a Florida overtime wage.

Florida overtime attorney Joseph M. Maus can help if you have a question or need information on Florida overtime wage claims. Contact him at 1-866-556-5529 or email him today for a free consultation. The Law Office of Joseph M. Maus and Associates has handled some of the largest Florida overtime wage claims. Attorneys in their offices were recently appointed in Federal Court as lead counsel in an Overtime Class Action against a large Fortune 500 Company.

So… my esteem collogues across California, make that the world! What exactly should we do about this measure and how does it really affect the citizens of California. Well let’s talk about it in terms of employment and the human resources department issues it raises, the impact it will have on the hiring practices of companies across the state, and the miss-guided direction it will send our younger and most naive applicants in.

First let’s recap Prop 19, as it is described in the Official California Sample Ballot and Voter instruction manual. It states the following:

Prop 19. Legalizes Marijuana under California but not federal law. Permits local Governments to Regulate and Tax Commercial production, distribution, and sale of Marijuana, Initiative Statute. Allows people 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use. Fiscal impact: Depending on federal, state, and local government actions, potential increase tax and fee revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually and potential correctional savings of several tens of millions of dollars annually.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! No kidding!

California has one of the highest if not the highest unemployment ratios in the nation, 12.6%, 2.5 million people out of work in the State, and we are asking our citizen’s if it’s Ok to smoke marijuana, break federal law and fail every employer’s drug test known to man.

I am not suggesting that there is a wrong or right stance on this issue, only to say that as we propose these ballots for the voters to consider; are we as professionals, parents, dads, moms; and others looking at the “big picture”?

Well folks, when I started this blog we were several days before the vote, but busy is busy and I didn’t get a chance to finish it or those thought provoking discussions I had hoped to generate.

Two weeks past the vote, and Californian’s overwhelming voted the proposition down and it’s no longer an issue, or is it?

Keep in mind there are Human resources departments all over country who continue to require pre-employment drug testing and are eliminating possible candidates for ‘dirty’ drug test. The mind set of HR executives have not and will not change on this point.

No potential employer wants to hire someone off the street who is a user of any banded substance; especially those deemed by the court system (Federal, State and Local) to be punishable by law! So what is the point?

If these kinds of initiatives are allowed to pass because we are “short sited” and or naïve to the challenges of the real hiring criteria; then we will doom another generation of young potential hire’s. They will find most opportunities if not all open positions unavailable, and the doors that lead to them… slammed in their faces!

My friends’ society has to make several systemic changes in how we think about marijuana, its place in our everyday activities, and its place in the work place to pass with a vote of yes these types of propositions.

In states that have elected to approve a marijuana initiative, the question is… have they incorporated business leaders, community leaders, social leaders, and educational institutions and had an open dialog about how this all fits in to the real world?

Arizona wake up and smell the coffee. You may be looking at a significant increase in your already high and unmanageable unemployment numbers…

Make sense?

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