S
Svoboda
Guest
What is the name of your state? Indiana
I am writing because I had a couple questions that I was hoping to have answered in regards to the FLSA, exempt status, and my current employment. More specifically, I feel as if I have been misclassified, and because of this, was not paid the correct wage.
Just to give you some background information, I was hired as an IT Specialist by my current employer in August 2002, with a starting salary of $28,800. From day one I was on call every other week for approximately three months until they fired my co-worker.
After she was fired, I was bumped up to $33,000, still labeled an IT Specialist and became on call 24/7. Then, in mid-2003, I was promoted to Systems Administrator, and my salary was bumped up to $40,000. The promotion was basically just to “correct” the incorrect job classification after I made a complaint to the Human Resources department and this is where I stand currently.
During my two years here, I have had many hours of “overtime” work as I am not permitted to do any maintenance, upgrades, etc, to our servers during normal business hours of 8am-5pm, which are my set daily work hours. There have been at least 6 emergencies that required me to work several 16 hour days alone with no extra compensation. Throw in my routine maintenance and after hours calls, and it quickly adds up... probably and average of 10-20 hours per week over 2 years.
I’ve recently been reading on the new FLSA updates after talking to some of my peers in similar positions that receive overtime. They have nearly identical job descriptions and perform the same duties as I do, yet receive overtime. I’ve read and re-read the computer professionals section nearly twenty times and I do not qualify for this exemption.
I have talked with my HR department and they claim that my position is exempt due to administrative tasks, as was my previous position. I think this is just an attempt to pigeon-hole me personally, as there is no way administrative duties is my primary job responsibility, nor do I spend anywhere near 50% doing these.
What is my proper chain of command to address this issue? Is this something I should retain a lawyer and file suit over? Any advice you can offer me on this would be gratefully accepted.
I am writing because I had a couple questions that I was hoping to have answered in regards to the FLSA, exempt status, and my current employment. More specifically, I feel as if I have been misclassified, and because of this, was not paid the correct wage.
Just to give you some background information, I was hired as an IT Specialist by my current employer in August 2002, with a starting salary of $28,800. From day one I was on call every other week for approximately three months until they fired my co-worker.
After she was fired, I was bumped up to $33,000, still labeled an IT Specialist and became on call 24/7. Then, in mid-2003, I was promoted to Systems Administrator, and my salary was bumped up to $40,000. The promotion was basically just to “correct” the incorrect job classification after I made a complaint to the Human Resources department and this is where I stand currently.
During my two years here, I have had many hours of “overtime” work as I am not permitted to do any maintenance, upgrades, etc, to our servers during normal business hours of 8am-5pm, which are my set daily work hours. There have been at least 6 emergencies that required me to work several 16 hour days alone with no extra compensation. Throw in my routine maintenance and after hours calls, and it quickly adds up... probably and average of 10-20 hours per week over 2 years.
I’ve recently been reading on the new FLSA updates after talking to some of my peers in similar positions that receive overtime. They have nearly identical job descriptions and perform the same duties as I do, yet receive overtime. I’ve read and re-read the computer professionals section nearly twenty times and I do not qualify for this exemption.
I have talked with my HR department and they claim that my position is exempt due to administrative tasks, as was my previous position. I think this is just an attempt to pigeon-hole me personally, as there is no way administrative duties is my primary job responsibility, nor do I spend anywhere near 50% doing these.
What is my proper chain of command to address this issue? Is this something I should retain a lawyer and file suit over? Any advice you can offer me on this would be gratefully accepted.
