Note: This article appeared first in the Amarillo Sunday Globe-News on August 24, 2008.

One of the trickiest areas of employment law that every employer has to learn to handle well is the overtime law.

The Fair Labor Standards Act is not at all intuitive, so if you don’t know the specifics of it, you need to educate yourself quickly.

Why bother learning the overtime law? Because overtime violations are one of the most common bases for employee lawsuits against companies right here in the Panhandle.

These cases are never limited to just one employee seeking a little back pay. They are routinely turned in class actions seeking two times the alleged overtime compensation due to each employee for up to three years past and, of course, the employees’ attorney’s exorbitant fees.

To explain all of the Fair Labor Standards Act requirements, I would have to write a book, not a newspaper column. But here a few danger areas that you should know about: Continue reading Common Overtime Mistakes →