Unpaid Overtime Attorney in Austin, Texas

Overtime violations are among the most common FLSA claims in Austin's tech, service, and professional sectors. Employers frequently misclassify employees as exempt from overtime — either by applying an exemption that doesn't fit the actual job duties, or by paying a salary without meeting the full exemption requirements. Employment attorneys evaluate the actual work performed, the compensation structure, and the number of hours worked to determine whether overtime was withheld illegally.

The FLSA's overtime requirement is straightforward: covered non-exempt employees are entitled to 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a single workweek. No Texas law supplements this rate — the federal standard is the floor and the ceiling. The workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring 168-hour period. Overtime cannot be averaged across pay periods; a 50-hour week and a 30-hour week do not cancel each other out — the 50-hour week generates 10 hours of overtime regardless.

The executive, administrative, and professional exemptions are the most commonly misapplied. Each requires both a salary basis test (earning at least $684/week as a fixed salary not subject to reduction based on quality or quantity of work) and a duties test. The executive exemption requires managing a department or subdivision and regularly directing two or more employees. The administrative exemption requires exercising independent judgment and discretion on matters of significance — not clerical or routine work. The professional exemption covers learned professions requiring advanced knowledge acquired through specialized education. Job titles like 'coordinator,' 'manager,' 'associate,' or 'specialist' do not determine which exemption (if any) applies.

Austin's tech sector generates significant overtime claims. Software developers at the senior level often qualify for the computer professional exemption — but that exemption requires consistent application of systems analysis techniques, design, development, or modification of computer systems, and compensation of at least $27.63/hour. Entry-level coders, QA testers, IT support staff, and employees whose primary job involves running existing systems (rather than designing them) often do not qualify for the computer exemption, even when their employer pays them a salary and calls them 'exempt.'

Restaurant and hospitality workers are routinely misclassified. 'Manager' and 'assistant manager' titles are applied to workers who spend most of their time performing the same duties as the employees they nominally supervise — working the line, taking orders, cleaning. The FLSA's primary duty test looks at what percentage of time the employee spends on managerial tasks and whether the managerial function is genuinely the most important aspect of the job. An employee who manages 15% of the time and cooks 85% of the time is not an exempt executive.

We connect Austin workers who believe overtime has been withheld with employment attorneys who evaluate the specific exemption classification, the actual job duties, and the compensation structure. FLSA collective actions can bring similarly situated employees together in a single case — particularly valuable when an employer has applied the same misclassification to a group of workers.