Demand Letter Triggers $20,000 Payment For Overtime

WAGE AND HOUR SETTLEMENT REPORT

We were retained by a restaurant worker who had been classified by his employer as a manager although he had few, if any, managerial responsibilities. Our client was paid a salary by the company and the company had classified him as “salaried exempt.”

We mailed the employer a letter highlighting our contention that the employer had intentionally mis-classified our client as an employee who was exempt from federal overtime laws. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. § 201, et. cet. (“FLSA”) , non-exempt restaurant employees must be paid overtime even if they are paid a salary instead of hourly wages. Although we believe that our client was a non-exempt employee, he arguably was an exempt employee because of a little known and complicated exception to the overtime laws for employees who are involved in interstate transportation. In our letter, we gave the employer 2 weeks to pay our client the full amount of his overtime claim. Within 2 weeks, the company agreed to pay our client slightly over $20,000, his approximate losses.