In today's economic environment a number of employers may feel that they can take advantage of their employees by not paying them any wages for the overtime work that the employees have performed. However, unless the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) specifically classifies a person as an "exempt" worker, he or she must be paid no less than 1 ½ times (150%) their regular hourly rate for any work they perform beyond forty hours in any given workweek.

Although the regulations can be complex there is no leeway permitted. Even if your employer establishes a "no overtime" policy or makes a special arrangement with you he or she cannot avoid paying you the overtime wages that you legally deserve.

What that means is that if even if you came to some sort of an agreement with your employer to work for less than 150% of your wage your employer has the responsibility of being cognizant of the law and must pay you according to the standards mandated by the law.

Now, keep in mind that not every overtime violation is a flagrant disregard of the law. A violation could result if you are misclassified. Or there might have been errors made in calculating your pay. However, even if they were not done intentionally the acts are still illegal.

One of the most common miscalculations comes about when an employee is paid weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly. No matter when he or she receives a paycheck, overtime is always calculated on an actual forty hour work week.

An employer cannot average your hours over several weeks. So, if you were to work for thirty hours one week and fifty hours the next week, even though you averaged forty hours per week you still would be legally entitled to ten hours of overtime pay for the week you worked fifty hours.

Quite a few employers try to establish a rule that they will not allow any overtime work or pay for any overtime unless they have authorized it in advance.

However, if, for example you stay late at work in order to finish an assignment that is due early the next day, according to the FLSA your employer must pay you for your overtime at your overtime rate - even though they did not approve your overtime in advance.

Another way employers may try to get away with not paying overtime is by giving a non-exempt employee comp time (compensatory time) in lieu of paying them the time-and-a-half overtime wages that are due them.

Comp time may, indeed, be legal. However, it always has to be paid at the identical rate of overtime wages - 150%.