Amerigroup to pay $4.5 million in overtime settlement
Amerigroup recently agreed to pay 940 marketing representatives $4.5 million for unpaid overtime wages, according to Bloomberg. The claim was originally made by Hamel Toure and Andrea Burch, two employees of the Virginia Beach, Virginia-based office. Toure and Burch alleged their employer regularly failed to properly pay them for all of their time attendance because they were incorrectly classified as exempt workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay workers time-and-a-half their regular pay rate if they work in excess of 40 hours during a pay period. However, if employees fall under one of the FLSA's exemptions, businesses are freed from this obligations. Executives, professionals, administrative workers, outside sales employees and highly skilled computer workers are all considered exempt as long as their position meets certain criteria.
These exemptions have lead some employers to misclassify workers so they don't have to extend labor benefits such as minimum wage and overtime. Marketing representatives for Amerigroup claim this was case with their position, since they earned no additional wages regardless of the number of hours they worked. According to the suit, their job duties do not align with those required by the FLSA to qualify as an exempt worker.
To prevent future violations, businesses might bring in expert advice by outsourcing human resources. They can also use a payroll processing service to ensure all employee attendance is being correctly tracked.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay workers time-and-a-half their regular pay rate if they work in excess of 40 hours during a pay period. However, if employees fall under one of the FLSA's exemptions, businesses are freed from this obligations. Executives, professionals, administrative workers, outside sales employees and highly skilled computer workers are all considered exempt as long as their position meets certain criteria.
These exemptions have lead some employers to misclassify workers so they don't have to extend labor benefits such as minimum wage and overtime. Marketing representatives for Amerigroup claim this was case with their position, since they earned no additional wages regardless of the number of hours they worked. According to the suit, their job duties do not align with those required by the FLSA to qualify as an exempt worker.
To prevent future violations, businesses might bring in expert advice by outsourcing human resources. They can also use a payroll processing service to ensure all employee attendance is being correctly tracked.
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