Human Resource Blog

Overtime in Virginia

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I worked at a laundromat in Norfolk,VA from December 2006 to December 2007. The employer said he didn’t have to pay overtime if I worked more than 40hrs per week. Am I entitled to back pay for the overtime? I also quit in December 2007 without giving  2 weeks notice and the employer will not give me my final paycheck, what do I do?

Virginia has no overtime law at the state level, so most employees are covered under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. The FLSA requires that employees be paid 1.5 times their usual salary when they work over 40 hours in a week. However, the FLSA does not apply to companies if they meet both of these conditions:

• Business revenue is less than $500,000 per year
• The company does not engage in interstate commerce

Interstate commerce includes sending products or catalogs across state lines, and buying products from an out-of-state vendor.

So, it is possible that the owner of the laundromat was correct, and he is not obligated to pay overtime. This is true if the total sales each year are less than $500,000, and the laundromat does not engage in commerce across state lines. The only way to find out for sure would be to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. They will investigate the claim. If the employee is owed overtime, they will require the employer to pay. The penalties for violations of the overtime law start at $1,100. There is a time limit to file a claim, so you will want to do this promptly.

A number of other states do not have overtime laws at the state level.

Under both Virginia and federal law, every employee is entitled to payment for all time worked, including a final paycheck. This is true regardless of whether the employee gives two weeks notice or not.

However, the Virginia Department of Labor does not require employers to pay for vacation time, severance pay, holiday pay or bonuses. So if the money that is “owed” is in any of these categories, there is no state or federal law that requires payment. For example, if John quits his job and requests that he be paid 2 weeks of vacation time in lieu of giving two weeks notice, the employer has no legal obligation to do so, in Virginia.

If the money that is owed is genuinely for hours that you worked, the Virginia Department of Labor will force the employer to pay it. Any employee who feels that they are entitled to payment can file a wage claim on the Virginia Department of Labor website.