Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
The restaurant featured in a recent article about illegal overtime wages in the Portland Press Herald is not at all unusual. The article describes a lawsuit, filed in federal court in February, that involves a cook at Portland restaurant Boda. The cook, Chad Egeland, said that restaurant owner Nattaska “Bob” Wongsaichu violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when he withheld overtime wages from restaurant employees who worked more than 40 hours a week.
It is a little known fact that under Maine and federal law, all employees are entitled to receive overtime pay in the amount of one and a half times their regular rate of pay for all time worked in excess of 40 hours in a given week, even if the employee is on salary, unless the employee’s work falls into one of several statutory exemptions to the overtime pay requirements.
Unfortunately, most employers do not have a firm understanding of their legal obligation to pay overtime wages. As a predictable result, many Maine workers are not receiving the wages they are entitled to under the law.
If you routinely work over 40 hours a week and you have not received overtime pay for these hours, please contact our wage and hour attorneys for a free 30 minute consultation.
—Posted by Attorney Thomas L. Douglas.