Is your employer paying you for your overtime work?  Do you work more than 40 hours a week?

If your weekly hours exceed 40 (measured weekly and not averaged over two or more weeks), then your employer should be paying you one-and-a-half times your hourly rate of pay.  Even if you are on salary, you may still be entitled to receive overtime pay from your employer, as long as your job position is not lawfully exempt from overtime rules – a subject for a different day.

Assembly Bill 1317: Introduced In 2014 But Not Yet The Law of New Jersey.

In 2014, the New Jersey General Assembly introduced Bill 1317 to strengthen procedures, penalties, and enforcement — and help employees where employers failed to pay lawful wages.  Under the bill, an employer who knowingly committed a violation would be required to pay the employee wages owed, plus liquidated damages equal to 100 percent of the wages owed. In addition to damages provided in this law, an employer found guilty of violating the workers’ rights would be fined $1,000 plus a 20 percent penalty of the wages owed for a first offense, and $2,500 plus a 20 percent penalty of the wages owed for subsequent offenses.

An employer found to have retaliated against an employee for filing a complaint under this section would be guilty of a disorderly persons offense and liable to the employee for damages.

Aggrieved employees would be able to file citizen complaints with municipal courts, either where they were hired or where they worked.  In those lawsuits, if the employer failed to present relevant records, the company would be presumed to have violated the statute. One consequence of violation would be the removal of the employer’s licenses to operate.

Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver, sponsor of a previous version of this bill, explained the rationale for the proposal:  “Many families are struggling as it is. Having your wages or any other form of compensation kept from you is not only an abuse of power, but can wreak havoc on a person’s finances,” she said. “This behavior is disgraceful and has no place in the workforce. This bill ensures that employers who have no qualms about cheating their workers will face stiffer penalties.”

Unfortunately, Governor Chris Christie vetoed the 2012 version of the bill, and the 2014 bill has not moved in the current Legislature.

Keeley v. Loomis Fargo Co. – A Federal Case About N.J. Overtime Pay

This case was decided by the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Court that interprets and applies the law to federal appellate cases arising in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

This case began as a federal trial court decision involving New Jersey litigants.  It arose from an overtime pay dispute between a private employer and a number of its employees.The issue was whether the New Jersey Commissioner of Labor exceeded his authority when he promulgated a regulation that excluded certain trucking industry employees, including the plaintiffs, from New Jersey’s statutory overtime pay requirement. New Jersey’s statutory overtime provision, applicable to most private-sector workers in the state, requires employers to pay overtime at a rate of “1-1/2 times [each] employee’s regular hourly wage.”  N.J. Stat. Ann. § 34:11-56a4. By contrast, the regulation required only that trucking industry employers pay their employees “an overtime rate not less than one and one-half times the [state] minimum wage.”  N.J. Admin. Code § 12:56-19.3.Because most trucking industry employees, including the plaintiffs here, earned wages exceeding “one and one-half times the [state] minimum wage,” the regulation’s purported requirement that employers pay an overtime premium became irrelevant.

The District Court upheld the regulation against the truck drivers’ attack.  However, the Third Circuit’s reading of New Jersey’s Wage and Hour Law, and of New Jersey precedent in this area and in the administrative law field, led them to the conclusion that the DOL Commissioner exceeded his authority in enacting this regulation. The Court held that the statute plainly limited the Commissioner to promulgating wage orders in those cases in which “a substantial number of employees in any occupation or occupations are receiving less than a fair wage.”  N.J. Stat. Ann. § 34:11-56a8 (emphasis added). The Commissioner had made no such finding in this case, and in fact, implicitly justified adoption of the challenged regulation on the opposite ground, i.e., that the covered employees’ wages were too high, thereby threatening New Jersey’s trucking industry.

Additionally, New Jersey’s Legislature, said the Court, had explicitly declared the policy of the Wage and Hour Law to be employee protection from unfair wages and excessive hours, and the state’s courts had repeatedly affirmed the protective nature of the statute. The trucking industry regulation issued by the Commissioner contravened not only the plain language of the statute, said the Court, but also explicit public policy.

Finally, said the Court, New Jersey precedent in both the Wage and Hour Law context and in the broader field of administrative law supported its conclusion that the Commissioner’s promulgation of the challenged regulation exceeded his authority.  Therefore, the Court held that the Defendant trucking concern may not assert the regulation as a defense to plaintiffs’ claims for unpaid overtime wages.  The truckers were entitled to have their claims resolved at trial.

Wage Theft, Legal Consultation, Coaching, and Advocacy

If your New Jersey employer owes you unpaid wages, whether regular weekly wages or overtime, this is considered “wage theft”.  If you believe your employer has committed wage theft, you should contact an employment lawyer for workers to discuss your options and the next steps to take in your matter.

When you contact our attorneys, we will review the facts, research the relevant law, advise you of your options, and coach you or advocate on your behalf, as you may direct.  Please call or write to us if you have any issues that arise in the employment setting, whether wage theft or otherwise.  We will be happy to assist you.