labor lawAdivision of labor law center

An aerospace defense contractor based in Broomfield, Colorado was ordered to pay almost $1 million in back wages to 904 employees in four states plus the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Department of Labor charges that Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Inc. failed to pay $976,327 in overtime to employees in Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia and Washington D.C.

According to sources, an investigation showed that once senior technicians reached the maximum hourly rate, they were arbitrarily and unlawfully changed to salaried-exempt status. The change in pay rate did not include a significant increase in responsibilities. Under federal law, in order to be exempt from overtime pay, employees must have decision-making powers, significant administrative duties or they must supervise three or more people. None of those conditions were met for the 111 technicians in question, so they are due $383, 235 in unpaid overtime.

In addition, all employees were routinely required to work through their lunch periods without any pay. Even if they were not able to take a lunch break, an hour was deducted from their time cards every work day. This violation resulted in payments of $593,092 to 793 employees.

Ball agreed to keep more accurate payroll records in the future, in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA, and to pay all required wages to employees in the future.

In late July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced Desert Plastering, Inc., a Las Vegas Nevada firm, to pay nearly $1.2 million in back pay to 1060 employees. The feds found that Desert Plastering had not paid required overtime to lathers, finishers, plasterers and estimators who worked up to 58 hours per week.

In early July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced 107 subcontractors of KBR, Inc. of Virginia to pay some $1.5 million in back wages and benefits for up to 2,600 workers who participated in the Hurricane Katrina recovery project. The construction workers were involved in repairs to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport Mississippi or the Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. The U.S. Department of Labor is still searching for some of the workers involved in that case. Anyone who believes that they are owed back wages for these projects can contact the nearest U.S. Department of Labor office. The average payment per worker in that case was $616.

Earlier this year, under a voluntary agreement to prevent a federal suit, Wal-Mart, Inc. agreed to pay $33 million in unpaid overtime wages to 86,680 employees throughout the nation. An internal audit revealed that the company had incorrectly classified some employees as “salary-exempt” when in fact they were entitled to overtime pay. In other cases, the company admitted that it had based overtime pay on the employee’s base hourly rate, not including incentives and bonuses in the employee’s average rate as required by law.

The Fair Labor Standard Act requires that most U.S. employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, which is currently $5.85 per hour. The FLSA also mandates that employees must be paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate for each hour over 40 in a single work week.

Many employers mistakenly believe that any worker paid by salary is exempt from overtime. The FLSA does provide a number of exemptions to the overtime law for bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales jobs. In general, employees must meet job duty and salary tests, to be exempt from overtime.

The U. S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division collected more than $171 in back wages for some 246,000 employees in 2006. Thos wages were a result of 31,987 “compliance actions” in 2006.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is one of the latest large companies to fall afoul of the federal and Colorado overtime laws.

The US Dept of Labor has recently announced that the store has agreed to pay more than $33 million in back wages. Under the terms of the judgment, Wal-Mart not only has to pay the back wages owed to employees, but also interest on those wages. This was thought to provide a deterrent against similar laws being violated in the future.

“This settlement provides $33 million in back wages, plus interest, to Wal-Mart workers, and the company has taken corrective action to prevent this from happening again.” This is what Victoria A. Lipnic, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards had to say on the matter.

It was found that Wal-Mart was guilty of wrongfully calculating the amount of overtime pay for workers in Colorado, as well as throughout the United States. The US Dept of Labor found that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.

They did this by not paying the right amount of overtime to workers who worked for more than 40 hours a week.  According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers are entitled to overtime at a rate of 1.5 times their usual hourly rate for each hour they work over 40 hours per week.

Wal-Mart were found guilty of violating Colorado overtime laws because they did not take into account incentives and premiums paid to the workers, and  paid employees overtime of 1.5 of the base rate only.  For example, if an employee earns $6.00 per hour, but with incentives usually earns $7.00 per hour, then their over time rate should be 1.5 times their usual hourly rate (including incentives), not their basic hourly rate.

The amount that Wal-Mart have agreed to pay back to their employees covers back wages for workers numbering 86,680 for the period between February 1, 2002 and January 19, 2007.

Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws have been written to establish a standard for both workers and employers. These laws are meant to be a guide for all Colorado businesses and residents.

According to Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws minimum wage is set at $5.15 per hour for all adults and independent minors. Tipped employees are required to receive at least $2.33 per hour plus tips. If the amount of tips along with the hourly pay does not equal minimum wage the employer must make up the difference.

Employers must abide by Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws regarding regular hourly pay and overtime pay. Employees who are eligible to receive overtime pay must be paid 1 ½ times the regular hourly rate for any hours worked over 12 per day. Those who work more than 40 hours per week also must be paid 1 ½ times the regular rate of pay.

Some employees are exempt from overtime pay according to Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws. Some examples of employees exempt from regular overtime laws include auto mechanics, salespeople, certain ski industry employees, and medical transportation employees. Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws state specifically which workers are eligible for overtime pay and which ones are not.

Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws make a provision for meal breaks and rest periods. Employees must be allowed one 30 minute meal break during which time they are free from all job responsibilities. They are entitled to this break when their shift lasts 5 or more hours. If the employee is required to work during the 30 minute rest period then they are required to be allowed to eat their meal while working and must be paid for that break.

In addition to an unpaid meal break Colorado employees are entitled to a 10 minute paid rest period every 4 hours. As stated in Colorado (CO) wage and hour laws employers are not required to allow workers to leave the premises for that period of time.

I think it’s important for us to take a particular look at what’s going on with Colorado overtime law. The state has its very own unique set of regulations regarding overtime pay and what constitutes overtime, as well as its own unique exclusion to these laws.

As with most states, however, Colorado starts out its overtime law with the same basics as most other states, along with the federal government. Basically, it goes along these lines: employees have to be paid one and half times their normal payment rate for time over 40 hours of work per week. We know this rule already.

Colorado overtime law continues, though, to say that that 1.5 times pay rate is also due for any time put out by a worker over 12 hours in a day, including any 12 hour consecutive period no matter if it starts one day and ends another. And of course, that 12 hours does not include any time spent on break or at lunch.

Minors, on the other hand, have a special rule all to themselves in Colorado overtime law. Employers can make them work in real emergency situations more than eight hours a day, or more than 40 hours a week. But if such an emergency situation arises, the employers must then pay those minors the overtime rate for all time over those eight hours in a day or 40 in a week.

Other special rules in the Colorado overtime law are exclusions, not inclusions like the above minor emergency clause. These exclusions—meaning these folks are not entitled to overtime pay—are worth our attention. Some examples of these jobs include any administrative positions, or an executive, managerial, or supervisory position. Anyone employed in outside sales, domestic employees, taxi cab drivers, babysitters, and elected officials and their staffs are also excluded.

The labor laws for Colorado including overtime and the federal labor laws can be found on the Colorado Complete Labor Law poster.