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Yes, an employer who requires or permits an employee to work overtime is generally required to pay the employee premium pay for such overtime work, even if the overtime work was not "authorized" or "approved" in advance by the employer. One of the most common myths under the wage and hour laws is that premium pay does not have to be paid for overtime work that was not approved in advance.

Yes. The FLSA does not set forth rights and duties in terms of full- or part-time employment. Rather, the Act requires overtime pay for any nonexempt, covered employee who works over 40 hours in a single workweek. This would include any "part-time" worker who happens to work extra hours in one or more workweeks such that his/her hours exceed 40 for a single workweek(s).

No. As noted above, to qualify for exemption from the overtime pay requirements, employees generally must be paid on a salary basis at not less than $684 per week and meet certain tests regarding their job duties. Job titles alone do not determine exempt status. The most common exemptions that a managerial employee may fit within (depending upon his/her specific job duties and whether he/she is paid on an appropriate salary basis) include the exemption for "executive" employees, the exemption for "administrative" employees, and/or the exemption for "highly- compensated" workers. One of the most common myths under the wage and hour laws is that giving a person a "supervisor" or "manager" title, or some sporadic managerial responsibilities, alone means that they are necessarily exempt from the overtime pay requirements.

Under the FLSA, rest periods of short duration, usually 20 minutes or less, must be counted as hours worked (because they promote employee efficiency, and thus, are for the employer's benefit as well). Bona fide meal periods (typically 30 minutes or more) generally need not be compensated as work time as long as the employee is relieved from duty for the purpose of eating a regular meal. The employee must be completely relieved from duty; the employee is not relieved if he/she is required or permitted to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating. One of the most common myths under wage and hours laws is that employees do not have to be paid for their "working" lunches (e.g., while multi-tasking at their desks by eating and performing job duties at the same time). For example, an employee who remains at his/her desk while eating lunch and regularly answers the telephone is working and this time must be counted and paid as compensable hours worked because the employee has not been completely relieved from duty.

Generally, the "regular rate" of pay includes all payments made by the employer to the employee (except certain statutory exclusions). The FLSA itself does not require the payment of commissions, but if an employer pays an employee commissions (whether based on a percentage of total sales or of sales in excess of a specified amount, or on some other formula), the commissions must be calculated into his/her "regular rate" for purposes of calculating his overtime pay. This is true regardless of whether the commission is the sole source of the employee's compensation or is paid in addition to a guaranteed salary or hourly rate, or on some other basis, and regardless of the method, frequency, or regularity of computing, allocating and paying the commission. Thus, it does not matter whether the commission earnings are computed daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or at some other interval. The fact that the commission is paid on a basis other than weekly, and that payment is delayed for a time past the employee's normal payday or pay period, does not excuse the employer from including this payment in the employee's regular rate for purposes of calculating overtime premiums that are due.