Press & News

Jerry Maatman Quoted in Inside Counsel
05/31/2006

"Wage Woes," in the May issue of Inside Counsel notes the national "explosion of wage and hour litigation" from workers claiming the right to overtime pay.   Plaintiffs filed 3,000 suits in 2004 under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the vast majority of which were overtime cases. And the Department of Labor (DOL) stepped up enforcement actions, collecting more than $119 million for employees in back overtime pay in fiscal 2005, while levying $4.3 million in penalties.   Publicity over a controversial 2004 revision of the federal overtime rules, which was intended to clarify who is eligible for overtime, heightened awareness among employees, including some white collar workers who realized for the first time that they qualified for overtime.  In November the U.S. Supreme Court raised the stakes, ruling that time spent donning and removing protective gear and walking to and from a workstation is part of the workday for which employees must be compensated. Plaintiffs’ attorneys now are challenging employers over time spent booting up a computer or reading company e-mail before starting work.

California has the most cases because it has the most employee-friendly rules, such as overtime requirements based on an eight-hour workday rather than a 40-hour workweek. But employers should not assume they are off the hook just because they don’t have operations in the Golden State. “The trend is now spreading east,” says Gerald Maatman Jr., partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw. “Illinois, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and New York also are experiencing exponential growth of wage and hour cases.”  There is no end in sight. Employment attorneys predict that the success of financial advisers will lead more white collar workers to seek overtime pay. Real estate agents may follow their lead, claiming their long hours entitle them to overtime even though their compensation is commission-based. Financial services, insurance and technology companies are likely to see more groups of workers file suits.