The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 establishes, among other things, minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for non-exempt employees under the Act. It sets a nationwide floor, however, and not a ceiling. States may provide greater wage and hour protections to employees in their state than the baseline federal standards. Virginia, however, had historically only enacted the Virginia Wage Payment Act (Va. Code § 40.1-29), which governed the timing and manner in which employers were required to make payment, and relied on the FLSA standards to govern substantive overtime obligations in the state.
That all changed in the 2020/2021 Virginia legislative sessions. First, Virginia amended the Virginia Wage Payment Act in 2020 to include a private right of action, a lengthened statute of limitations, and significantly increased damages. That was followed up in 2021 by the enactment of the first ever stand-alone overtime law in the state: the Virginia Overtime Wage Act or VOWA (Va. Code § 40.1-29.2). The Virginia Overtime Wage Act, in conjunction with the Virginia Wage Payment Act amendments, dramatically increased the overtime pay requirements in Virginia, including: (1) providing a private right of action under state law for overtime violations; (2) increasing the amount and type of overtime damages available; (3) extending the statute of limitations to three years; (4) limiting traditional overtime exemptions; and (5) changing the regular rate formula for paying overtime....
The internet is full of people promising effortless tax refunds. For many, the business model is simple: invent expenses, file claims at volume, and take a cut. These “refund factories” exploit HM...