Are you a day rate employee owed overtime?

One common way for employers to avoid paying overtime pay to their employees is to pay those employees by the day. So called “day rate” employees get paid a set amount each day for their work. Unfortunately, this pay scheme rarely considers the amount of hours the employee is working–and so the worker loses out on their overtime pay. For instance, if a worker gets paid $150 a day, and works 6 days a week, it is extremely unlikely that he or she is working 40 hours or less that week. Instead, that worker is probably working 8 hour days, in which case a 6 day work week means they will get $150 x 6 days, or $900. However, under the law of all 50 states, that work actually deserves more money for that work. If you get paid by the day and work more than 40 hours a week, you probably have a case. You can be entitled to all the money you were not paid, plus an additional amount in damages.