Overtime

Most workers have had times in their careers when they felt they weren't being treated fairly by their employer. But the question remains: Is it illegal, and if so, what can I do about it? As part of AOL Jobs' web video series, "Lunchtime Live," employment lawyer and AOL Jobs blogger Donna Ballman ...

No one would wish for a natural disaster on the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy, but if you're looking for a glimmer of hope and opportunity, rebuilding likely will mean more hours and pay for workers who help repair the damage. After the initial shocks to the economy related to $60 billion worth of lost output ...

How can you get paid for all the hours you worked? Whether it's getting paid vacation days or lunch breaks, lots of AOL Jobs readers have concerns about this issue, so I'm going to answer three readers' questions in this column. Please note: I'm giving general answers based on federal law. Your state may have ...

Working in coal mines can bring to mind dirty and dangerous labor. But for more than century, it often was lucrative. Joe Caudill, who worked as a roof-bolter in an underground coal mine in Knott County in eastern Kentucky, brought home $105,000 last year, after factoring in overtime pay. But Caudill and ...

Most employees are entitled to be paid overtime for any hours worked over 40 in one week (and no, your employer can't average two or more weeks together). Unless you work for a tiny and purely local employer, or fall within a specific exemption, your employer is legally required to pay you time and a half for ...

Do you feel like your work day never really ends? It turns out the death of the time clock is not a figment of your imagination. According to a new survey released by Good Technology, the average American worker puts in an extra month and a half of overtime each year, just answering work emails and calls at ...

By Mark Sherman WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has ruled that sales representatives for pharmaceutical companies do not qualify for overtime pay under federal law, a big victory for the drug industry. In a 5-4 decision Monday, the court's conservative majority concluded that the roughly 90,000 ...

Working overtime doesn't increase your output. It makes you stupid. Many of us still imagine that the more we work, the more productive we are. For over a hundred years or more, this has been deemed nonsense. ...

Restaurant managers don't usually clean ovens, mop floors or serve food. But it was having to perform such mundane tasks and not getting properly paid to do them that led several Boston Market Corp. employees to sue the chain for overtime pay. The employees alleged in a 2010 lawsuit that the Golden, ...

The owner of three Subway shops won an award that no boss would want to receive. After workers in Anil Dhawan's stores in Vancouver, British Columbia, complained that they were pressured to waive their right to overtime pay, labor activists there awarded Dhawan the "Bad Boss Award." The Employee Action and ...

By Peter Svensson NEW YORK -- Chinese workers who often spend more than 60 hours per week assembling iPhones and iPads will have their overtime hours curbed and their pay increased after a labor auditor hired by Apple Inc. inspected their factories. ...

An Australian nurse, who spent years counseling men and women at their deathbeds, recorded their revelations and regrets on her blog, which she's now turned into a book, "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying." The most common regrets, she found, were doing what others expected of you over what you truly wanted, ...

Something's got to give. The country's cities are being occupied by citizens clamoring for a reassessment of our capitalist system. Of course, there's the motivator of 9.1 percent unemployment. But while the plight of the employed might pale in comparison to those still out of work, times are also tougher for ...

Many Americans long for that day when the ship finally comes in. For several New York City employees that day arrived last year when they raked in more than $700,000. One of the group, Gerald Mistretta, a city sewer worker, made more than the police commissioner, the schools chancellor and the mayor -- ...

With the Labor Day holiday looming, it would seem that many more Americans would find a way to kick back, relax and enjoy the fleeting days of summer. But we're an industrious bunch, so it may come as little surprise that the vast majority will find themselves busy with some enterprise this weekend, a new ...

Time is a relative concept. Don't worry, we're not talking in an Einstein, speed-of-light kind of way. We mean in a practical, "time flies when you're having fun" kind of way. Most of us feel like times when we're enjoying ourselves go by quicker, while times when we're unhappy, bored or stressed seem to drag ...

Just because you're salaried doesn't mean you're automatically exempt from overtime. Most employees are entitled to be paid overtime (1.5 times your regular hourly rate) under the Fair Labor Standards Act for any hours worked over 40 per week. Some employees are exempt, but not nearly as many as most employers ...

With unemployment so high, many people are just excited to get an offer for work. After months and months of searching, it's easy to want to scream, "Yes, I'll take it!" when the first offer comes along. But before you pull that trigger and pack your lunch, make sure you get everything you need in writing. Often, ...

Channel 10 news in California reported that the California headquarters for the Department of Motor Vehicles is driving its employees mad with its new edict that requires employees to work on Fridays for free. For the past year, employees at the DMV have had Fridays off so that California could save some money ...