salaried employee and exemption

[josh_rain]

What is the name of your state? GA

hi ,
As per the "Service Contract Act Directory of Occupations"
ref: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/wage/p07090.htm


the below is my occupation at a restaurant.

07090 FAST FOOD WORKER (Crew person, Team member, Associate)

A nonsupervisory full-or part-time worker in a fast food restaurant who performs one or more repetitious and standardized tasks at an assigned station. Duties include one or more of the following: Preparing simple food items such as french fries, fish or chicken portions, hamburgers, and beverages in a highly standardized manner, often controlled by automatic or simple timing devices; taking customers' orders; filling orders; and collecting payment. May rotate among stations. May also clean equipment or premises.

The restaurant is a franchisee and it opened less than 6 months back.
There are 6 employees working at the restaurant and doing the same jobs .

Two of the employees (including my self ) work on salaried basis working full time for 12hrs/ day for 6 days (total hrs worked = 72) . But it goes to 90 hrs . We 2 people get paid $470 after taxes.

The other employees work part time (ie between 25-45 hrs a week ) and get paid hourly $6/hr .

I did some research on the DOL website and i read that you can only be paid salary if you are management , executive and outdoor sales and professional , but i am neither . It also says that to be considered management position you cannot perform more than 40% doing non-management task and a manager is a person who has power to hire-fire , etc ...

i am exhausted after working for so long , do i have any rights !!!
Is there anything i can do .. i know most of you would tell me leave and look for another job ( please let me know something besides that)..

josh

 

[Tayla]

Josh,

Short of taking your own advice, Here are some options:
1. Dismiss yourself under the title you were hired and ask if you can be part time. This way you become hourly wages and if you work over 40 hours its time and 1/2.
2. I didn't read that you were dissatisfied with the job so much as the long hours and under-pay you endure.
3. The employer can set up its own guidelines for what job category can qualify for salary wages. The Dept of Labor simply sets parameters once those categories are deemed (along with a whole bunch of technical jargon to boggle the average joe). A salaried employee can qualify for overtime pay in some cases, check with your state on those particular instances.
4. You asked if you have any rights: Certainly! The right to a paycheck, and most constitutional rights are upheld in your workplace. There are a plethora of rights you have.!

 

[Beth3]

In response to Tayla's post, I can only say "huh?"

Here's the deal, Josh. It looks like you've done your homework and have a pretty good understanding of the requirements. The DOL has set up specific guidelines as to which types of positions an employer may classify as exempt. All other positions are, by default, non-exempt and must be paid overtime. That means that any time worked in excess of 40 hours in a 7-day payroll period must be paid time at and a-half.

While figuring which positions may be classified as exempt does get a little grey at times, I expect the lines would be very clearly drawn in a fast-food restaurant setting. Unless you are a bonafide member of management, then you MUST be paid for your overtime hours. It is legal to pay a non-exempt employee on a salaried basis (i.e. a fixed weekly salary) as long as they are ALSO paid for their overtime but that obviously is not the case here.

If you wish to pursue your legal rights, you should contact your State's Department of Labor, discuss your situation with them, and file a complaint. You may well be entitled to several years of back over-time pay, along with any co-workers who have also been misclassified. Chances are you are not the only one.

 

[cbg]

Josh, I went through this with you at some length in your last post. The answer has not changed.

YES, you have rights. YES, your employer is acting illegally. We both agreed that was the case in the other thread.

I told you at that time that your recourse was to contact the state Department of Labor. I told you that nothing was going to change until you did so. We agreed that your employer was exploiting the fact that as a foreign national, you did not fully understand your rights. (Clearly that much, at least, has changed as you now appear to have a good understanding of them.)

So why are you back here asking the same question? Why are you not on the phone to the state DOL?