labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The District of Columbia technically isn’t a state. I just read their license plate on the back of a car the other day. It said “Taxation without representation,” meaning they don’t have a congressional representative, they aren’t considered a true state, and yet residents of Washington, D.C., have to follow the rules of the land.

And one of these rules is, of course, overtime law. Here is where District of Columbians actually do have a little more control over their lives, despite their non-state status. As with the 50 states in the Union, Washington, D.C., has the opportunity to define its own overtime rules, or they can just follow the basic federal guidelines. But unlike many states, the District of Columbia took the initiative and crafted its own laws on the subject, which makes it an interesting topic for us.

The standard basic rules apply in Washington, D.C., overtime laws that are in the federal and state laws. They are, and we’re probably pretty familiar with them now after looking at other states, that any employer that makes an employee work more than 40 hours per work week then owes that employee time and a half pay for any amount of time over those 40 hours.

The Washington, D.C., law gets interesting for us, though, with the exceptions that follow that standard rule. Those exceptions mean that certain types of workers are not entitled to overtime pay.

Some of these exceptions include people in executive, administrative, or professional positions—more of your white-collar type of jobs. Also included are casual babysitters, such as your neighborhood teenage girl who watches the kids while you’re at the movies.

Volunteers at charities, seamen, parking garage attendants, railroad workers, and newspaper delivery people are also exempt. Someone who sells or works on automobiles, trucks, or trailers is also left out, as are people who primarily make a living washing cars.

The District of Columbia Labor Law poster refelcts the overtime laws alongside all the ederal labor laws for you to review.

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