Louisiana Mandatory Overtime Laws
Posted by Tamara
A young single mother from Louisiana recently contacted us with a dilemma. She was being required to work overtime for a title company several times per week. However, her supervisor told her that the company didn’t authorize overtime, and wouldn’t pay for it. Instead, the young woman was being told to take some time off within 5 business days. Usually, the title office was so busy that taking time off wasn’t possible and the young mother simply lost the time. Let’s take each of her questions one at a time.
Under the Louisiana mandatory overtime laws, there is no limit to the number of hours that an employer can force this struggling young mother to work. She can even be fired, if she refuses.
However, there is nothing in federal or Louisiana law that allows employers to grant “comp” time instead of overtime pay. If you work an extra 5 hours on Monday, the employer can tell you to take 5 hours off later in the work week, so that your total hours equal 40 or less. But, if you work 45 hours in this work week, the employer can’t refuse to pay you overtime and tell you to only work 35 hours next week. This “comp” time arrangement is legal for civil service employees and employees of non-profit organizations, under federal law. Under Louisiana law, it is never legal for a private employer – a business – to give comp time rather than paying overtime.
The next thing that our team of highly trained experts needed to determine was if this young mother was “exempt.” Under federal law, a number of occupations are exempt from the overtime requirements. These include executives, professionals such as doctors and architects, outside salespeople, and highly paid employees in the computer industry. Our young mother, Nita, was on a salary of $22,000 per year. That automatically means that she is entitled to overtime pay, since by federal law anyone who is not paid $455 per week, qualifies for overtime.
Based on their analysis, our experts delivered their verdict to Nita: She was obligated to work overtime, but when she worked over 40 hours in one week, she should be compensated at 1.5 times her usual rate. Finally, since Nita’s supervisor kept saying that overtime wasn’t approved, one expert suggested that Nita just stop working the unpaid time.
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