Takeaway: Under Section 207 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, an employer can lawfully reduce an employee's nonovertime rate of pay in certain situations so long as the rate reduction isn't designed to circumvent the act's overtime provisions. Prudent employers would set this regular rate in a reasoned manner through wage negotiations with the affected employee to avoid the appearance of manipulating it to avoid paying appropriate overtime.
A security guard plausibly alleged that his employer used a fluctuation in his weekly average rate of pay as a device to avoid paying overtime compensation, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently found.
When the security guard was first hired by his employer, his established regular rate of pay was $13 an hour, and he typically worked a 40-hour week. In January 2019, his employer began scheduling him for an additional 20 or so hours per week, raising his weekly total to about 60 hours. For the next seven months, he continued to earn his established hourly rate of $13 per hour for the first 40 hours he worked in a week. For each additional hour worked, he earned an overtime rate of time and a half—$19.50 per hour.
However, in July 2019, his employer reduced his rate to $11.15 per hour for the first 40 hours and correspondingly lowered his overtime rate to $16.73 per hour—again time and a half. For the next 11 months, the plaintiff worked between 55 and 75 hours per week. His reduced $11.15 rate caused him to earn on average...
CHESHIRE Police says that it has arrested a Warrington woman on suspicion of wasting police time after resources from two police forces were diverted to ‘false kidnap claims’. In the early hours o...