Is Your Company Required to Pay You Overtime Compensation For After-Hours Smart-Phone Use?

Many companies have taken to the practice of providing their employees cell phones. This practice can blur the line between work hours and off hours, and raise legal questions concerning the right to overtime compensation.

Several currently pending lawsuits are based on the premise that companies expect employees to work unpaid and off hours via iPhones, BlackBerrys or other digital devices, and that workers are not compensated for all their time spent. Pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), non-exempt workers must be compensated for all time worked, including overtime pay at a rate of one and one-half their standard rate of pay. With the upcoming changes to federal labor regulations, many more workers may be able to rightfully claim that they are entitled to overtime pay.

Currently, about 44% of Internet users regularly performed some job tasks outside the workplace last year, 35% said it increased the number of hours they work.

Federal rules currently state that workers earning more than $455 a week, or $23,660 a year, may not be eligible for overtime pay. New rules coming from the Labor Department as early as this summer will likely raise the salary floor and entitle millions more Americans to earn overtime pay.

While many people making $30,000 aren’t doing jobs that require them to have remote access, if you increase that to $55,000 it will include a significant number of workers who are used to – and expected to use -remote access.

For more information or if you believe that you have not been paid all the compensation you are entitled to, especially as the result of having to put in after-hours work on your smart-phone, please contact the experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyers at Buckley Bala Wilson Mew LLP for an immediate case evaluation.