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Overtime Class Actions

Philadelphia Unpaid Overtime Class Action Lawyers Hold Employers Accountable

Do you think that your employer may owe you overtime wages? Our Philadelphia overtime class and collective action lawyers represent individuals or groups of individuals who have been unlawfully denied wages or overtime compensation.

  • Have you been denied overtime compensation?
  • Have you performed work before or after scheduled shifts without compensation?
  • Have you performed work during unpaid meal breaks and not been compensated?
  • Have you performed work off the clock and not been compensated?
  • Has your employer failed to pay you for compensable travel time?
  • Have you been misclassified?
  • Have you been denied a minimum wage?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you should seek the advice of an employment law firm dedicated to fighting for Employee rights. Collective Actions are a form of class actions that are brought by a group of employees to assert their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). They are most commonly actions alleging wage and hour violations.

Murphy Law Group has represented thousands of employees including, but not limited to, registered nurses, correctional officers, technicians, warehouse workers, commissioned salespersons, restaurant workers, drivers, call center workers, and many other employee classifications, in wage and hour disputes against both public and private employers and recovered millions of dollars for workers who have unlawfully been denied wages.

What Damages are Available in an Overtime Class Action Lawsuit?

Michael Murphy, the founder of the Murphy Law Group, has successfully represented many employees, both on an individual basis and on a class or collective basis, who have not been paid in accordance with federal and state wage and hour laws.

By utilizing the collective action process, employees can join together to assert individual claims in one action, saving time and money. These types of claims often assert that employees are misclassified and therefore entitled to overtime, or have not been paid for all the time worked, travel time, or meal breaks. For example:

  • Murphy Law Group secured $865,000 for 55 behavioral health professionals who claimed their employer was unfairly denying them overtime pay. For more about this case, see recent coverage in The Legal Intelligencer: Therapists’ Overtime Class Action Nets $865K Settlement.
  • Murphy Law Group obtained $1.383 million for 279 loan officers who claimed their employer refused to pay them bonuses earned and miscalculated their overtime rates by failing to include all remuneration received.
  • Murphy Law Group recovered $453,900 on behalf of 418 sales representatives who claimed their employer improperly required them to work off the clock before and after their shifts and during unpaid meal breaks.

Three Reasons Your Employer May Owe Your Overtime Pay

#1 Off-the-Clock Work

All employees must be paid for all work performed for an employer. The following are a few examples of where employees may perform work “off the clock” for an employer without compensation:

  • Work performed before and after scheduled shifts
  • Time spent working from home
  • Time spent putting on a uniform or employer-required equipment before and after scheduled shifts
  • Travel time both before and after scheduled shifts or during the workday between work sites

#2 Work Performed During Unpaid Breaks

Many employers provide unpaid meal breaks for employees during the workday. In order for an employer to deduct pay during a scheduled shift for a meal break, an employee must receive an uninterrupted meal break.

If your unpaid meal breaks are frequently interrupted or you are otherwise not completely relieved of duty during your meal breaks, you may have a claim for unpaid wages or overtime compensation.

#3 Misclassification Claims

In September 2019, the Department of Labor announced it was raising the minimum salary level for exempt employees—making more people non-exempt and thus eligible for FLSA protections, specifically, overtime pay.

  • The old threshold was $455 a week or $23,660 per year.
  • The new threshold is $684 per week or $35,568 per year.
  • The law became effective as of January 1, 2020.

According to the Department of Labor, this law makes an estimated 1.3 million additional people in the United States eligible for overtime pay—and employers will pay about $298.8 million more in overtime pay in 2020.

  • Some employers will raise their employees’ paychecks to $35,568 per year so they don’t have to pay overtime.
  • Many employers will have to convert employees to non-exempt status.

This means either employers will have to start paying overtime or reduce the number of hours the employees work because now they have to pay for those hours.

Murphy Law Group is Dedicated to Recovering Unpaid Wages and Overtime Compensation for Employees

Murphy Law Group represents individuals or groups of individuals who have not been paid in accordance with federal and state wage and hour laws. If you believe you have been denied overtime or you are owed wages, contact us to discuss your situation.

Murphy Law Group represents residents of Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs, including residents of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, Berks, Lancaster, Northampton, Lehigh, Lackawanna, and Luzerne Counties, residents located in central and western Pennsylvania, as well as individuals residing in New Jersey, who have potential claims for unpaid wages and overtime compensation. Murphy Law Group is dedicated to protecting the rights of Pennsylvania and New Jersey workers.