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Employment Law StrategistLJN NewslettersNewsSections

Overseeing Overtime Practices

By Loren Gesinsky and Douglas E. Arone
February 25, 2005

Overtime eligibility has developed into a snake pit for employers. The rate of claims for unpaid overtime compensation in court cases and agency proceedings has been increasing faster than that of any other type of employment litigation for several years now. During this period the number of federal overtime collective actions has been more than the number of federal class actions for all types of employment discrimination combined. The cumulative damages awarded to current and former employees for these claims have been enormous.

Not surprisingly, the availability of this money has fueled an explosion in overtime litigation. The plaintiffs' bar has become increasingly aware that overtime claims lend themselves especially well to collective and/or class actions in which attorneys' fees, liquidated damages, and other relief are available in addition to back pay. The explosion is also due in part to the overtime laws being among the most misunderstood, and correspondingly most violated, employment laws. In addition to their lack of clarity and logic, the overtime laws rely on a framework seemingly best-suited for the New-Deal era in which it developed. In other words, plaintiffs' attorneys see money to be made from employers whose internal awareness of their overtime problems lags far behind their awareness of traditionally higher profile employment-law issues such as sexual harassment.

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