I had this happen to me at a company that I owned in the past. I got the DOL to chop the total amount due in half and then got them to allow us to pay it out over 4 or 5 years. (All without a lawyer btw...)
Edit: Reason for downvotes?
LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
41–50 of 170 posts
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#42> This company has shown a great deal of integrity by fully cooperating with investigators and stepping up to the plate without hesitation to help make workers whole ... We are particularly pleased that LinkedIn also has committed to take positive and practical steps towards securing future compliance. I'm surprised they're getting praised so much for complying. It's not like they had a choice. Instead of commending…
As I've put in my other comment elsewhere I got hit with a DOL action many years ago. It definitely wasn't willful but we were running afoul of some hidden rule that even some lawyers had never heard of and didn't know about. One employee complained, they investigated and audited, and we got fined and had to pay back wages. I'm not commenting on why or what linkedin did only providing perspective that it can happen for less nefarious reasons.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#43prohibiting off-the-clock work to all nonexempt employees I presume this doesn't include computer professionals , which for some reason are exempt [1], as are sales staff on commission or, you know, farmworkers . Can someone explain why this insanity continues? The original source for that exemption seems to be [2], an act from 1990 To eliminate "substantial documentary evidence" requirement for minimum wage determin…
It persists partially because tech industry workers are especially susceptible to class confusion. That is, the startup culture stock option lottery deludes them into thinking they are a part of the ownership class rather than the working class. Thus, they allow basically all of the fruits of their labor to be stolen from them. That, and powerful lobbyists keep anything from changing.
There are a lot of comments like this in this thread, the gist of which being "people who don't demand overtime pay are deluded/stupid/victims of false consciousness/act against their own interest."
Pretty much everyone is an at will employee, free to go find another job. Since these exempt positions tend to be high skill, the logic behind these laws is that these kinds of employees don't need this extra layer of government protection between them and their paycheck. They have the wherewithal to go find another employer if they feel they're being treated unfairly.
The left wing side of this argument is certainly getting a hearing, but coming to a different conclusion doesn't make you a deluded member of the under class (if I'm interpreting your claptrap correctly).
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends on your job and other factors, but sometimes the answer is, sadly, yes. My mom is a soon-to-retire nurse and she was a salaried employee who, if she worked overtime, made either time-and-a-half (1.5x) or double-time (2x) pay depending upon the situation. But software developers, for all of the talk of ninjas and rockstars and whatnot, are a socially low and easily exploited class that make decisions agains…
You certainly don't seem to think very highly of software developers.
For whatever it is worth, I am a software developer and I'm as guilty as any of working 80 hour weeks, especially in the first 10 years of my career.
I'm just older now (41 this year) and while I still work as a software developer and have avoided the management route (since I still love coding), I've become somewhat jaded on the business end of things.
Don't get me wrong, I think in certain situations (eg. developer is a founder or has meaningful preferential equity in a company) that working very long hours toward a goal without directly being paid for those hours is perfectly acceptable; but I cringe when I think of how many hours of sleep I missed in my younger days for a pat on the back or token meaningless non-monetary perks when I was a common-stock-holding pleb being constantly diluted out of equity in even the moderately successful companies.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, most HN readers are probably exempt due to the "computer employee" exemption: > Computer Employees: Those who work in computer-related occupations, for example computer systems analysts, computer programmers and computer software engineers, are exempt as long as their work involves a combination of primary duties that include applying systems analysis techniques and procedures, consulting with users to determine…
I wonder what (if there is one) the logical reason behind this exemption is.
Companies would like some free labour, and to not have to pay for free overtime.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#46I don't get it. So if I'm working overtime for my employer, a lot, I'm entitled to money? I get that my work after hours is essentially "free" labor. But I wasn't aware that there are actually laws that say salaried employees are entitled to more compensation when working after hours.
As a EU citizen I hoped to see a /s under your post. I do not want to be rude but here it is obvious that if you work overtime you must be compensated and also very well (usually 1,5-2 times more than regular hours). And not only it, in some states, like mine, you can work only a limited amount of hours (6 or 8, I don't remember well) overtime per week, otherwise it is illegal.
The USA is a bit of an odd outlier in the developed world when it comes to employee rights.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry to say but if you're working overtime for absolutely free you're not very smart person.
Right, because it's always that easy to just say "F U boss, I'm outa here!" Oh, wait, I have to feed my kid and pay the rent this month... oops.
I don't know about you but for me - yes, it's that easy. I don't remember ever working overtime without payment.
Granted I am not afraid to get fired so there is no fear involved. However I never got fired in my life.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#48I don't get it. So if I'm working overtime for my employer, a lot, I'm entitled to money? I get that my work after hours is essentially "free" labor. But I wasn't aware that there are actually laws that say salaried employees are entitled to more compensation when working after hours.
Wait, if you work overtime in the U.S. you do not get compensated for it?
The opposite holds, too, though. Salaried employees make the same amount whether they work 30 hours a week or 50.
That said, most people try to average out to around 40 hours, because they usually agree to five 8 hour days.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
One reason is lack of organized lobbying by IT/engineers: http://andreas.com/faq-overtime.html Another round of policy discussion is underway: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/us/politics/obama-will-see...
(Edited to be less sure.) A third reason might be the argument from market power stemming from the fact that if you can personally create $10 million of cold hard cash value using nothing but a bit of time in front of a computer, and with no long-term detrimental effects on you of any kind, then the fact that you are minting money creates a seller's market (just as there will always be a seller's market for legal cur…
Nonexempt employees can still work crazy hours, they just get overtime for it.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#50I don't get it. So if I'm working overtime for my employer, a lot, I'm entitled to money? I get that my work after hours is essentially "free" labor. But I wasn't aware that there are actually laws that say salaried employees are entitled to more compensation when working after hours.
Some excerpts that help explain it: The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular hourly rates for hours worked beyond 40 per week. With few exceptions, to be exempt an employee must (a) be paid at least $23,600 per year ($455 per week), and (b) be paid on a salary basis, and also (c) perform e…
There is some debate about what exactly an exempt position is too. Companies seem to abuse what they consider to be an exempt position to the point that eventually employees fight back. I believe this happened a few years ago a RIM or AT&T.
For example if you are working a support job that regularly requires you to work 50+ hour weeks you should probably be getting overtime pay.