labor lawAdivision of labor law center

New Mexico has gotten in line with the new federal overtime regulations, or the new FairPlay rules, as they are called. These new laws came into effect in August of 2004, and they basically change the playing field that had originally been established by the Fair Labor Standards Act that was written in the 1930s.

The new FairPlay rules guarantee overtime pay for all employees who earn less than $23,660 per year, or $455 per week. This includes more than 6.7 million people across the entire United States. Many of these people under the old rules didn’t get overtime. About 1.3 million of them we’re talking about.

Many of the same exceptions to the overtime rules, for people who on the other hand do not get overtime from the federal laws, remain included in these new rules on the federal level and in New Mexico. These include people who are considered “bona fide” professional, executives, and administrators.

This list includes many white-collar salaried employees, such as teachers and principals and other academic administrative type people for elementary, junior high, and high schools. It also includes people involved in outside sales, and many people who are involved in the computer and IT business.

In New Mexico, there are several other types of workers who are excluded from overtime pay. These include any workers who are participating in the agricultural business.

Another law in New Mexico that we should consider is the one that says that employees are not entitled to “compensatory time off” instead of overtime pay. Basically, what this means is that if you work, say, 46 hours in a week, your employer cannot then allow you to use those extra 6 hours as time off later in the month. Even if you want that, it’s not allowed. That employer must always pay you the overtime rate for those 6 hours.

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