LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
1–10 of 170 posts
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#2> 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 them on their newfound diligence, we should be asking why and how these overtime violations occurred in the first place. Was it a systemic problem with lower management incentives? How far up did knowledge of the violations extend? Why wasn't it detected until now, and what can we do to prevent it from happening elsewhere, not just within LinkedIn?
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#3I 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.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#4prohibiting 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 determination for American Samoa
which also includes this provision. All I can figure from the history of this bill that can be found online is that in 1990 Idaho, senator James McClure decided to fuck over tech workers and sneaked that into a bill on American samoa (snooze). 25 years later and here we are not getting paid.
[1]: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/screen75.asp
[2]: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-104/pdf/STATUTE-104-Pg2...
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#5I 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.
There are exempt salaried workers and nonexempt salaried workers. The exemption refers to overtime pay. The LinkedIn employees were nonexempt (so they were owed payment for overtime).
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#6I 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.
Sorry to say but if you're working overtime for absolutely free you're not very smart person.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#7I 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 exempt job duties. These requirements are outlined in the FLSA Regulations (promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor). Most employees must meet all three "tests" to be exempt.
An employee who meets the salary level tests and also the salary basis tests is exempt only if s/he also performs exempt job duties. These FLSA exemptions are limited to employees who perform relatively high-level work. Whether the duties of a particular job qualify as exempt depends on what they are. Job titles or position descriptions are of limited usefulness in this determination. (A secretary is still a secretary even if s/he is called an "administrative assistant," and the chief executive officer is still the CEO even if s/he is called a janitor.) It is the actual job tasks that must be evaluated, along with how the particular job tasks "fit" into the employer's overall operations.
http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html
Generally managers, engineers, and most salaried office jobs are "exempt". Lately more focus has gone towards defining who exactly is an exempt vs non-exempt salaried employee in white collar office jobs.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#8prohibiting 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.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#9I 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.
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.
Re: LinkedIn to pay nearly $6M in unpaid overtime wages and damages to 359 employees
#10prohibiting 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…
In California, computer professionals paid under ~$85k are required to be non-exempt (hourly) and should be paid overtime [1]
[1]: http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/hrqa/pages/california-min...