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Employer refusing to pay overtime

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kapsycumm

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? --- I work in Michigan (employer headquarted in PA)

Question:-

I work 40 hours a week usually as a software consultant, but worked for 30+ extra hours in May. My employer has not paid me the overtime yet. After talking to my company, he told me that he is not going to pay me overtime because I am a bad timesheet-submitter. He sent me a 6-year old email which mentions that the timesheets need to be submitted on time to get paid the overtime. I was shocked to hear that as I was really looking forward to getting paid for the hard work I did on couple of weekends. I work through multiple layers and the timesheet process is really complicated. It usually causes delays on my end to submit my hours. He has already charged the client and received the money from the client for all of these hours.

Can he do that?

Thanks in advance.
 


eerelations

Senior Member
Typical software consultant jobs fall into the FLSA's IT exemption-from-overtime-pay category. This means your employer is not legally required to pay you overtime pay (no matter what it bills to/receives from the client); the fact that it does so when you submit your timesheets in accordance with deadlines means that it is being generous and going above and beyond the requirements of the law. You have no legal recourse for this.
 

kapsycumm

Junior Member
Typical software consultant jobs fall into the FLSA's IT exemption-from-overtime-pay category. This means your employer is not legally required to pay you overtime pay (no matter what it bills to/receives from the client); the fact that it does so when you submit your timesheets in accordance with deadlines means that it is being generous and going above and beyond the requirements of the law. You have no legal recourse for this.
Thanks for your reply. He paid overtime to other person from my company who works at the same client.
 

kapsycumm

Junior Member
That was nice of him. It still doesn't mean he's legally required to pay overtime to you.
So DOL complaint would not help at all? What do you suggest? I still can't digest the fact that he is charging the client for the work I did and not passing onto me. I shouldn't even bother putting in the overtime hours then, correct? There is no incentive for me.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
So DOL complaint would not help at all? What do you suggest? I still can't digest the fact that he is charging the client for the work I did and not passing onto me. I shouldn't even bother putting in the overtime hours then, correct? There is no incentive for me.
Why should any specific amount be "passed on" to you?

If you want things to operate that way, start your own business.
 

eerelations

Senior Member
So DOL complaint would not help at all? What do you suggest? I still can't digest the fact that he is charging the client for the work I did and not passing onto me. I shouldn't even bother putting in the overtime hours then, correct? There is no incentive for me.
A I said before, you have no legal recourse in this matter.

The DOL will not be interested in this issue because your employer is not violating any DOL regulations. Ergo, the DOL will not accept a complaint from you on this matter.

Regarding what your employer is charging the client, there are no labour laws in the US that address this issue. Because there are no laws that address this issue, your employer is legally allowed to charge the client whatever your employer wishes to charge the client, with no legal obligation to pass on any of it to you.

Finally, you are certainly legally free to refuse to work any overtime hours. However (absent an ironclad and enforceable contract that states clearly that you cannot be fired for refusing to work overtime hours), your employer is legally free to fire you for said refusal.
 

kapsycumm

Junior Member
Why should any specific amount be "passed on" to you?

If you want things to operate that way, start your own business.
I am a salaried employee, so I thought he will have to pay for the extra work approved by the client. It is not like I am asking him to pay for something I didn't do. I am only expecting certain amount of hours that I worked extra and got it approved from the client for myself. I understand that he might keep his share, but expected him to pass my portion to me.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I am a salaried employee, so I thought he will have to pay for the extra work approved by the client. It is not like I am asking him to pay for something I didn't do. I am only expecting certain amount of hours that I worked extra and got it approved from the client for myself. I understand that he might keep his share, but expected him to pass my portion to me.
Since when does a properly classified (as you seem to be) salary employee get paid overtime? :confused:
 

kapsycumm

Junior Member
A I said before, you have no legal recourse in this matter.

The DOL will not be interested in this issue because your employer is not violating any DOL regulations. Ergo, the DOL will not accept a complaint from you on this matter.

Regarding what your employer is charging the client, there are no labour laws in the US that address this issue. Because there are no laws that address this issue, your employer is legally allowed to charge the client whatever your employer wishes to charge the client, with no legal obligation to pass on any of it to you.

Finally, you are certainly legally free to refuse to work any overtime hours. However (absent an ironclad and enforceable contract that states clearly that you cannot be fired for refusing to work overtime hours), your employer is legally free to fire you for said refusal.
Thanks for the explanation. I think you may be misunderstanding my situation or I may be confused. I would like to mention the following:

This is how my employment is structured.

My company -> company A -> company B -> Client

I work at client site. My company only charges the no. of hours that I submit in my company portal. I submit same hours in company A's,B's and client's portal. Client will pay for the number of hours I entered in its portal and got approved. So my company doesn't quote the number of hours in advance. It is a week-to-week process and completely dependent on what I enter in the portal. My company doesn't have any clue what I do at my client's site and is no position to charge any hours they want.

I thought I will get paid for the overtime which is why I entered it in my company's portal so that my company can charge that many extra hours. If they don't pay me anything, I guess I need to take this as lessons learned and opt for Complimentary-off from next time onwards.
 

eerelations

Senior Member
I am a salaried employee, so I thought he will have to pay for the extra work approved by the client. It is not like I am asking him to pay for something I didn't do. I am only expecting certain amount of hours that I worked extra and got it approved from the client for myself. I understand that he might keep his share, but expected him to pass my portion to me.
One more time, your employer is not legally obliged to pay you the extra hours that you worked. The client's approval of those hours has absolutely no standing whatsoever in law. Period.

I really don't know how I can be any clearer about this.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I thought I will get paid for the overtime which is why I entered it in my company's portal so that my company can charge that many extra hours. If they don't pay me anything, I guess I need to take this as lessons learned and opt for Complimentary-off from next time onwards.
You may find yourself out of a job if you start slacking off.
 

eerelations

Senior Member
Thanks for the explanation. I think you may be misunderstanding my situation or I may be confused. I would like to mention the following:

This is how my employment is structured.

My company -> company A -> company B -> Client

I work at client site. My company only charges the no. of hours that I submit in my company portal. I submit same hours in company A's,B's and client's portal. Client will pay for the number of hours I entered in its portal and got approved. So my company doesn't quote the number of hours in advance. It is a week-to-week process and completely dependent on what I enter in the portal. My company doesn't have any clue what I do at my client's site and is no position to charge any hours they want.

I thought I will get paid for the overtime which is why I entered it in my company's portal so that my company can charge that many extra hours. If they don't pay me anything, I guess I need to take this as lessons learned and opt for Complimentary-off from next time onwards.
I am not misunderstanding your situation. I worked for many years as the HR Director for multinational software and related companies that outsourced their employees to client companies in the US. I know exactly what you do, I know exactly what your company does, I know exactly what US labour laws say about your type of work vis a vis overtime pay requirements. In a nutshell, your employer is not legally required to pay you for overtime hours worked.
 

kapsycumm

Junior Member
I am not misunderstanding your situation. I worked for many years as the HR Director for multinational software and related companies that outsourced their employees to client companies in the US. I know exactly what you do, I know exactly what your company does, I know exactly what US labour laws say about your type of work vis a vis overtime pay requirements. In a nutshell, your employer is not legally required to pay you for overtime hours worked.
Thanks eerelations and sorry for being repetitive. I was just confused.
 

eerelations

Senior Member
Thanks eerelations and sorry for being repetitive. I was just confused.
You're welcome. Just keep in mind that (absent a contract that says you must get comp time if you ask for it) your employer is not legally required to give you comp time off either (just saying this in case you opt for it, get refused, and come back here asking about it).

Your kind thanks deserves some non-legal advice: move heaven and earth to get those timesheets submitted on time! If you still can't, and if there's something your employer is doing to impede the timely receipt of those timesheets, talk to your boss about it. (Be prepared with some useful suggestions on how to fix the impediment.) However, if it's something the client is doing/not doing, then there's not much you can do about that.

But keep in mind, no matter what happens, even if you start getting those timesheets in on time, your employer is still not legally obliged to pay you overtime pay.
 

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