overtime pay tx/hutto (Austin: calculated, salary, restaurants)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

New business in town, "Hit the spot cafe" not paying overtime pay. Is overtime pay different in Texas than in other states? I personally saw a check stub and they are paying straight wages, no overtime.

[centralaustinite]

Federal law applies, Texas has no state laws about it.

Texas Labor Laws - Wage, Hour - EmploymentLawHandbook.com

[Trainwreck20]

If the employee is salary and not hourly, then there are different requirements for overtime, even if the annual salary is back-calculated (and paid) on an hourly basis. Not likely in a restaurant, except maybe for the head chef/cook or managers. Salary employees have some requirement - something along the lines of 'decision making authority' for the business or something like that.

Note that overtime is only based on 40 hours per week in Texas (afaik), whereas some states do require overtime pay over 8 or 10 hours in a day.

[fminogue]

Check the Department of Labor Wage and Hour division web site https://www.dol.gov/whd and particularly https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime_pay.htm for information about overtime pay. If you are not getting it, you can file a complaint with the wage and hour division and they will take up the fight for you. That is what they are there for. I used to work for a different division of the DOL, but we used to refer folks over to WHD all the time for just such questions. Hope this is helpful.

[coachdave1]

restaurants also have weird exceptions for tips

[Austinite76]

Originally Posted by coachdave1

restaurants also have weird exceptions for tips

Does not apply to overtime or general wage/hour suits.


Bottom line is that if you don't pay 1.5x minimum wage at 40 hours, you're violating federal law.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Austinite76

Bottom line is that if you don't pay 1.5x minimum wage at 40 hours, you're violating federal law.

Not completely accurate - there are 'exempt' employees that do not receive overtime for more than 40 hours. Generally, though, hourly paid employees must receive 1.5X pay after 40 hours. There are a few exceptions to that, as hourly and 'non-exempt' employees aren't necessarily identical definitions.

I *think* tipped employee minimum wage is still $2.125? So overtime is only $3.1875 for waitstaff.

[Austinite76]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Not completely accurate - there are 'exempt' employees that do not receive overtime for more than 40 hours. Generally, though, hourly paid employees must receive 1.5X pay after 40 hours. There are a few exceptions to that, as hourly and 'non-exempt' employees aren't necessarily identical definitions.

I *think* tipped employee minimum wage is still $2.125? So overtime is only $3.1875 for waitstaff.

Exempt employees are not going to be paid straight hourly wages. Nor is it likely that a cafe would meet the exempt requirements for both total salary and job duties.

And the minimal salary requirements for exempt pay would dictate that you would indeed have to pay greater than 1.5x minimum wage at 40 hours.

[Trainwreck20]

True, just being a pedant .