Georgia Wage and Hour Lawyer

First, you can file a complaint with the nearest office of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Labor Department will investigate your claim, and if they find evidence to support you, they can work with your employer to settle the wage and hour claim, or the Labor Department can file suit against the company. The Labor Department's goal is to get you your back salary, and sometimes (such as in the case of the company's being a repeat offender), they can get more money as a penalty.

The second way the law allows you to obtain your back pay is to make a legal claim against your company for your back wages. In this type of wage and hour claim, you sue on behalf of yourself as an individual. In large-scale situations where other employees have also been deprived of their overtime pay, you can file a "class action" lawsuit. In a class-action lawsuit, a few employees sue on behalf of all of the employees at your company who have been shorted their overtime pay.

While you deserve your overtime pay, you might think that reporting the company or filing a lawsuit is more trouble than it is worth. This is another reason why hiring an Atlanta wage and hour lawyer is so important at the beginning of the process. Because a lawyer who is skilled in wage and hour claims can evaluate your case and help you find the fastest, easiest way to resolve your complaint and get you paid.

Usually, your lawyer will be able to work out a settlement between you and your employer — often where your employer agrees to pay you what they owe (plus interest) in exchange for your promising not to file a lawsuit.

You may also wonder if your employer can retaliate against you, either for contacting the Labor Department or even talking to an attorney about your claim. While we cannot promise your employer will not try to retaliate in some way, what we can tell you is that it is against the law for the company to retaliate against you while the Labor Department is investigating a claim, or for going to a lawyer about your concerns. And if your employer does retaliate, then we would just add that to your complaint or lawsuit as another reason why your employer needs to pay you for more than back wages.

Because overtime eligibility can be complicated, it is important to say that if it ultimately turned out that you were not entitled to overtime pay, your employer still cannot act against you for going to a lawyer. So even if they were right about the overtime pay, you could still sue them if they retaliated for your asking about it.

There are no Georgia state laws specifically relating to overtime. Instead, the state relies on federal laws regarding overtime to protect workers within the state.

For covered employees, a "workweek" means seven consecutive days. For example, your workweek could be from Monday at 9 a.m. to the following Monday, or it could also start on Wednesday at 11 p.m. and run to the next Wednesday.

When the workweek begins does not matter, in the eyes of the law. All that matters is what happens in the following 168 hours, meaning the seven consecutive days. If you work more than 40 hours within one 168-hour period, then you are entitled to overtime if you are covered by the FLSA.

Some employees are paid by the week, some biweekly; some get paid once a month, but none of that impacts your ability to get overtime. Overtime is still based on how many hours you worked in a single one-week period. Working 60 hours one week and then 20 hours the next week does not "average out." You are still entitled to overtime for the 60-hour week.

Normally, you should receive any overtime pay due you on your next payday, when you would be paid for the rest of your time.

Blue-collar employees are employees who are working with their hands in some kind of physical labor. You may be considered a blue-collar employee if you:

• Work with your hands
• Put physical energy into your job
• Do a repetitive task (such as work on an assembly line)
• Learn your job through on-the-job training or an apprenticeship (rather than advanced education at college)
• Are not a manager or supervisor of other employees

Unless they fall into an exception, most blue-collar, full-time employees should be paid overtime when working more than 40 hours in a workweek.

One of the particular challenges for blue-collar employees is that not all blue-collar workers get paid an hourly rate. Some get paid by the day or shift they work; others get paid by the piece they finish.

If you are someone who does not get paid by the hour but gets another type of payment, do not think that means you are out of luck when it comes to overtime. You are still entitled to overtime.

For example, if you get paid by the day, you divide your salary by the number of days and hours worked, and you get that rate for any hours over 40.

If you are paid by the piece, you add up what you got paid during an entire pay period, then divide that by the hours. And if you had any hours when you had to wait for work, those hours of waiting still count for your 40 hours and overtime, just as much as the hours when you worked productively.

White-collar employees work in offices and typically use their minds, knowledge, and education, rather than physical ability, to do their jobs. They are also often supervisors of other employees or business owners.

While most people think blue collar/white collar determines eligibility for overtime pay, that is not true. White-collar employees may also be entitled to overtime.

It is only when white-collar employees fall into the categories below that they too may not qualify for overtime:

• If you are an owner of the business (owning at least 20% of the business)
• If you are a manager
• If you are working in some administrative positions
• If you are in a profession where education, training, or creativity make the difference in pay and responsibility
• If you work in certain industries (computer technology, motion picture production, education, public agencies)
• If you are in sales

But even in white-collar employment, the wage and hour law still starts with an expectation that you are eligible for overtime pay unless you are an owner.

For an employee to be considered a "manager" and therefore not entitled to overtime, a Georgia employer would have to show that:

• You have to earn a base salary of at least $684 a week (not including other money to cover things like room and board);
• Your primary job responsibility is to manage other employees, and you have to be managing at least two other people; AND
• You have to have input on who is hired and fired, promoted, or any other decision regarding other employees' status.

For the manager exemption, the one that is probably the most difficult to understand is the "primary job responsibility." We mean that the main responsibility of your job is to take care of the people who work for you. You can still do the work alongside the people who report to you.

For example, a manager on an assembly line can still spend time on the line each day. But the manager's main focus — what they do, how they spend their time, what determines if they will get a raise or promotion — should be on how they manage the people they supervise.

The administrative exemption covers some white-collar employees who work in the company's administration office and may (or may not) be managers.

Examples of positions that may fall under the administrative exception are human resources staff; public relations; accountant and legal staff; purchasing; and computer maintenance and information technology (IT) departments.

But, once again, just because you work in one of these categories does not necessarily mean you cannot collect overtime pay. Instead, for this administrative exception to apply, administrative employees:

• Should be earn at least $684 a week
• Work office jobs that are not manual (physical) labor
• Do things that relate to running the business operations of the company, rather than produce the work, product, etc. the company does
• Be able to make at least some decisions on how they do their jobs
• Be able to make some decisions on how the company will operate

Another set of employees who may not be eligible for overtime pay falls under the category of "professional." First off, no matter what type of career you may have, you must earn at least $684 a week for this exemption to apply.

After that, the wage and hour law requires that, to not qualify for overtime wages, a professional employee:

1. Must perform work requiring advanced knowledge;
2. The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; AND
3. The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

This wage and hour overtime law exemption applies to those in professions such as lawyers, doctors, and architects. It also covers those such as certified public accountants and schoolteachers.

In the case of other jobs, the amount of professional training needed for a job is important. For example, registered nurses and physician assistants are normally considered to be professionals for this statute, while practical nurses with less training are not (and are therefore still eligible for overtime). Similarly, cooks are not considered professionals under this law, but a chef who went to a four-year culinary academy may be.

The professional category also covers employees who have a "creative" career relating to the arts. But again, there are still exceptions on top of exemptions. For instance, while a professional writer could be considered a creative professional, if the writer is a full-time reporter who is strictly supervised, with a very limited list of things they are allowed to write about and strict requirements for their work, then they could be back in the non-exempt wage and hour law category and allowed overtime.

The "highly compensated employee" exemption applies to some white-collar employees who have jobs related to the administrative, professional, or executive categories, but they do not satisfy all of the requirements for those other exemptions.

You could fall under the highly compensated employee exemption if all of the following apply:

• You earn total annual compensation of $107,432 or more;
• You are paid at least $684 each week (either as salary or a fee and not including bonuses, commissions, or other benefits);
• Your primary duty includes performing office or non-manual work; AND
• You usually perform at least one of the duties or responsibilities of an exempt executive, administrative, or professional employee.

The annual and weekly salaries listed for this exemption apply to employment on or after January 1, 2020.

There are some industries that, due to the nature of their work, have some specific overtime rules of their own. Some of the most common examples are commissioned sales and working on a small farm.

If you work in Georgia's film and television industry, with a base salary that's more than $1,043 a week (even if you only work a couple of days a week), you might be an exempt employee.

In the fields of computer technology, those who design software and hardware can be considered white collar workers, so they are exempt (no overtime) employees. However, those who work on computer repairs may be considered blue collar workers, so they may be eligible for overtime pay.

Teachers may be exempt under the professional worker exemption. At the same time, those who work in school administration may be exempt under the administrative exemption of the wage and hour federal law. What is considered "administrative" is incredibly broad when it comes to schools. It relates to actual administrators (e.g., school board employees) and those working in the front office. But the FLSA can also apply to other school employees, from janitors and lunchroom monitors to school psychologists.

In Georgia, you can report a wage and hour violation by contacting one of these offices for the Department of Labor:

Atlanta District Office
US Dept. of Labor
Wage and Hour Division

61 Forsyth Street, SW Room 7M10
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: (678) 237-0525
Toll-Free: 1-866-487-9243

Atlanta North Area Office
233 Peachtree Street, N.E. Suite 650
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: (404) 593-1889
Toll-Free: 1-866-487-9243

Savannah Area Office
US Dept. of Labor
Wage and Hour Division

450 Mall Blvd., Suite D
Savannah, GA 31406
Phone: (912) 652-4221
Toll-Free: 1-866-487-9243

The Department of Labor also has a national toll-free number you can call to ask questions about wage and hour laws and your eligibility for overtime pay: 1-866-487-9243.