Employers can fight overtime until they're blue in the face, but they still owe manual laborers
There are many legal ways employers can avoid paying their workers overtime. Creating strict schedules that are capped at 40 hours, establishing penalties for workers who disregard limits and paying staff members on a salary basis are some of the common tactics to navigate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provision that provides covered individuals with premium pay for extra time and attendance.
Before employers take one of these routes to keep their payroll costs under control, they should remember that none of the above strategies actually frees them of their obligations. The FLSA establishes that any person who performs manual or repetitive work on a regular basis must be paid time-and-a-half if they work more than 40-hours a week. This includes all blue collar workers, such as iron workers, craftsmen, maintenance workers, mechanics, construction workers and mechanics.
The FLSA does contain exceptions for certain positions, such as executives, administrative workers, professionals and highly skilled computer specialists, and salaries are considered a factor in determining whether they're exempt. However, blue collar workers are not disqualified for this benefit even if they receive an annual wage rather than hourly pay.
"The exemptions provided by FLSA Section 13(a)(1) do not apply to manual laborers or other "blue-collar" workers who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy," the FLSA states.
To avoid employee lawsuits and back wages, employers should use timeclocks or another timekeeping system to track staff members' hours worked in order to calculate overtime earnings.
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