Overtime pitfalls: The lurking traps

A rash of wage-and-hour lawsuits is drawing attention to the often-overlooked complexities of overtime pay laws. Think you don't owe overtime? Check our gallery of potential tripwires.

Illustrations by Terry Allen for Fortune Small Business.

Comp Time
Comp Time
The FLSA doesn't recognize "comp time" for nonexempt employees, particularly in terms of allowing someone to work extra now in anticipation of paid time off later.

An employee who worked 44 hours in a given week should receive time-and-a-half for four hours; the only option for creating comp time would be for the employee to work only 36 hours the following week to equalize a two-week paycheck. Banking those extra four hours against future vacation time would violate the FLSA.

Last updated January 22 2008: 8:59 AM ET

The $23,660 Rule

"Executive" Assistant

IT Employees

Extra Hours

Telecommuting

Comp Time

Stock Options

The Cog Factor

The Overtime Bomb
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.