Category: Uncategorized

Over the past several years, particularly during surges in COVID and COVID-related illness and hospitalizations, our nations nurses are working longer hours than ever.  Many salaried nurses do not receive extra pay for working more than 40 hours in a week, as their employers classify them as exempt from the overtime requirements under the federal law governing overtime pay – the Fair Labor Standards Act, or “FLSA.”  However, not all nurses qualify for this exemption, and many nurses are being denied overtime pay they have earned because their employer treats them as exempt even when they are not.

Which nurses are exempt from overtime?

Many employers treat their nurses as exempt, relying on a provision of the FLSA that says employers do not have to pay overtime pay to employees who are “Learned Professionals.” To be a Learned Professional, the employee must:

• •  be compensated on a salary or fee basis at a rate not less than $684 per week;
  •  perform work, as their primary duty, requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment;
  • The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and
  • The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor states that Registered Nurses are generally properly compensated as exempt and not entitled to receive overtime pay, as long as they are paid a salary of at least $684 per week, and that their salary does not change depending on the number of hours they work.

However, just because a nurse is an R.N. does not mean he or she is automatically exempt from the overtime requirements. To be exempt, the nurse’s duties still must require the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment. In other words, their duties must require them to regularly use their unique R.N. skills and qualifications. If a licensed practical nurse or similar healthcare employee could perform the same job duties that the R.N. performs, then the exemption will not apply even if the nurse happens to be an R.N.

As such, LPNs and other similar health care employees generally do not qualify as exempt learned professionals, regardless of work experience and training, because possession of a specialized advanced academic degree is not a standard prerequisite for entry into such occupations. Those nurses are entitled to overtime pay whether they are paid a salary, hourly, or on a fee basis.

What do I do if I feel I should be getting paid overtime, but my employer does not do so?

Shavitz Law Group is here to help. If you have questions about whether your employer is violating federal requirements, or if you have any other employment concerns, please do not hesitate to call us for a free consultation at (800) 616-4000, or visit us at www.shavitzlaw.com for a free, no obligation review of your circumstances and consultation regarding your rights.

Many companies treat truck drivers and delivery drivers as independent contractors and do not pay them overtime wages. In recent years, courts have held that drivers are employees who are entitled to the protections of state and federal wage laws. That means that many drivers are eligible for overtime pay, health benefits, and workers’ compensation insurance.

Companies like FedEx and Amazon have paid substantial settlements to resolve independent contractor misclassification claims. Some companies exercise so much control over the drivers like setting quotas on deliveries and restrictions on schedules that the drivers are effectively employees. In such situations, courts have found drivers, who were treated as independent contractors by the companies, to be employees who are eligible for protection under state and federal wage laws.

If you worked as a driver and were treated as an independent contractor, please contact the Shavitz Law Group at [email protected] or 800-616-4000. We are available for a free consultation to discuss your rights.

Discrimination in the workplace does not always occur in the same way. While discrimination can come in more blatant forms: i.e. an employer chooses a less-qualified coworker for a promotion over a more-qualified minority worker, discrimination can also occur in more subtle and latent ways. One such way in which discrimination can occur is if an employer makes earning or advancement opportunities less accessible to minority and/or female employees. For example, if an employee is in sales, do they have the same access to prime leads, well-established accounts, or more affluent territories for prospecting?  If the employee is a store manager that is evaluated on the store’s relative financial performance, do they likewise have equal opportunity for assignment at the higher performing store locations?

These acts of discrimination are not always so obvious. Luckily, federal law protects workers from discrimination, both in terms of blatant discrimination and latent discrimination. Particularly, federal law protects workers from discrimination on the basis of race, sex (i.e. gender identity, pregnancy, and sexual orientation), national origin, religion, age, disability and genetic information (i.e. family medical history).

If you have experienced either blatant or latent discrimination in your workplace, please give us a call at the Shavitz Law Group, (800) 616-4000 or email us at  [email protected]

Recently, there has been an important trend in employment law: some employers are no longer requiring there employees to agree to mandatory arbitration. This change has several important benefits for employees. One, employees get to bring their cases in court, where they have the right to a jury (this is not the case in arbitration). Two, most arbitration agreements contain a class waiver, which means that employees have to bring their claims in arbitration individually and cannot sue their employer in a class or collective action. In court, employees can pool their resources and seek relief as a group in a class or collective action.

There are a few takeaways here:

• If employees already have signed arbitration agreements, they should check with their employer to see if the agreements are still in effect.
• If an employer is still using and enforcing arbitration agreements, employees can still challenge their validity and enforceability.
• If the employer’s arbitration agreement is valid and enforceable, employees can still pursue their claims in arbitration. Even if there is a class waiver, employers sometimes will not enforce it if faced with multiple individual claims which it must defend.

Shavitz Law Group is here to help. If you have questions about whether your employer is violating federal requirements, or if you have any other employment concerns, please do not hesitate to call us for a free consultation at (800) 616-4000, or visit us at www.shavitzlaw.com for a free, no obligation review of your circumstances and consultation regarding your rights.

YOU EARNED IT, NOW LETS GO GET IT.

Gregg Shavitz, Shavitz Law Group, 951 Yamato Rd Ste 285, Boca Raton, FL and 800 3rd Ave, Suite 2800, New York, NY. Lawyers licensed in states including FL, NY, NJ, and TX. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based on advertisements alone.

Attorney Advertising