Tag Archives: regular rate of pay

The crux of the plaintiff’s complaint involved alleged FLSA regular rate violations. In particular, the city’s failure to include certain wage augments in the plaintiffs’ regular rate. The FLSA requires virtually all the money an employee is paid included in his or her regular rate. Proper calculation of the regular rate is critical since all FLSA overtime must be paid at a rate of at least time-and-one-half of the employee’s regular rate. Very often employers utilize an employee’s base hourly rate to calculate the overtime rate of pay. However, the FLSA requires that all remuneration be included in the regular rate of pay.

Specifically, the plaintiffs made two basic claims:

• First, the city failed to include money paid directly to employees in lieu of receiving employer sponsored medical benefits in the regular rate.
• Second, the plaintiffs also wanted holiday pay included in their regular rate.

A lawsuit initially filed by only four Flagstaff, Arizona firefighters last September has ended with a court approved settlement between the city and a total of thirty-one firefighters. The firefighters alleged the city failed to include all remuneration in some firefighter’s regular rate of pay. In particular, the firefighters claimed the city failed to include certain “premium payments” paid to ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the payroll/HR manager for a fire department. Our department offers first aid and CPR classes for residents of the community. We offer the classes a couple of times per year. Firefighters that are certified CPR and first aid instructors teach the classes during off-duty hours. However, since most of the firefighters make different hourly rates, ...