FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nonprofit Workplace Fairness Addresses the Topic of and Answers Questions About Overtime Pay
Organization Provides Resources for Working People, Lawyers and Advocates
WASHINGTON (April 15, 2014) In addition to Workplace Fairness being an organization that advocates for and promotes employee rights, Workplace Fairness also provides information on overtime pay. Topics include explanation of what is overtime pay, which federal law(s) cover payment of overtime, who is covered by overtime laws and numerous questions and answers related to overtime and overtime pay requirements.
Seeking to influence workers incomes where possible, President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum March 13 directing the Labor Department to devise new overtime rules that would strengthen overtime rules and make more workers eligible for time-and-a-half pay for their extra hours of work.
The memorandum was one of the most far-reaching executive actions taken by the president this year. The rules would be aimed at salaried workers who make more than $455 a week and those who are ineligible for overtime because they are designated as management even though their supervisory duties are minimal.
The subject of overtime pay is possibly the most confusing subject for workers seeking to learn more about their employment rights. Many workers do not understand whether or not they are eligible for overtime, or what they should do in the event their employer is not paying them accurately (or at all) for the extra time that they work. Complicating an already difficult subject is the new set of overtime regulations which went into effect in August 2004. (For more information, please see our page on exemptions from overtime.) Many of these regulations are the subject of vastly different interpretations, and have not yet been ruled upon by courts.
Workplace Fairness provides clarification of this complicated subject for you, but if you have remaining questions, you may wish to speak to a local attorney who is knowledgeable about overtime, since it is impossible to anticipate every problem that may have arisen in your workplace. The Workplace Fairness website also provides a list of attorneys who represent workers in employment matters, including overtime pay, classification and unpaid wages issues, searchable by state, zip code and areas of expertise, at https://www.workplacefairness.org/find-attorney.
Workplace Fairness is a nonprofit organization working to preserve and promote employee rights. The Workplace Fairness website, www.workplacefairness.org, provides comprehensive information about job rights and employment issues nationally and in all 50 states. It is for workers, employers, advocates, policymakers, journalists and anyone else who wants to understand, protect and strengthen workers' rights.
The Workplace Fairness website is also a resource for lawyers and advocates looking for workplace news, court decisions, class action news and other important legal information. Featured are news articles on workplace-related issues from published news sources around the country, and the award-winning Today's Workplace blog, www.todaysworkplace.org, featuring the best workplace-related commentary from around the web.
A visit to the site will give you more comprehensive information: https://www.workplacefairness.org/
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About Workplace Fairness Workplace Fairness is a nonprofit organization that provides information, education and assistance to individual workers and their advocates nationwide and promotes public policies that advance employee rights.
Our goals are that workers and their advocates are educated about workplace rights and options for resolving workplace problems and those policymakers, members of the business community and the public at large view the fair treatment of workers as both good business practice and sound public policy.
Workplace Fairness works toward these goals by:
- making comprehensive information about workers' rights--free of legal jargon--readily available to workers and to advocates and organizations that assist workers;
- providing resources to support the work of legal services organizations, community-based organizations, law schools and private attorneys that provide free legal information and services to low-income workers;
- presenting the employee perspective in publications, policy debates and public discussion.
The award-winning Workplace Fairness website, www.workplacefairness.org, has newly updated information throughout the site, as part of the Web's most comprehensive resource educating workers about their legal rights in the workplace.
Media Contact:
Paula Brantner
Executive Director
202-243-7660
paula@workplacefairness.org
www.workplacefairness.org