There are many different types of jobs in West Virginia. They are also compensated in different ways. Some are considered exempt employees and may have a salary, which means they earn the same amount no matter how many hours they work. Others are considered non-exempt employees and are paid hourly and the more they work the more they earn.
There are laws governing how much employers must pay hourly employees such as overtime. However, these laws also state that employers must pay for time that may not immediately seem like work hours. These times include:
- Washing, cleaning or changing clothes for safety reasons;
- Break time and meal time which are 20 minutes or less;
- On-call time if the employee is not free to do what they would like while being on-call;
- If employees are required to work for a 24-hour period and there is no express agreement, all meal times, break times and sleep times must be compensated;
- Wait time;
- If required to go to a training or meeting, the employer must compensate the employee for the time spent preparing for and attending the training or meeting;
- Travel time to and from an assigned work location and time spent travelling to perform job requirements if the employee is not spending time overnight; and
- If the employee is required to spend an overnight away from home on a job assignment, any time spent travelling, even on Saturdays and Sundays, unless it is time outside of the employees normal work hours and the employee is a passenger and not required to work while being a passenger.
If these times require the employee to work more than 40 hours in a given work week, the employer must pay overtime for those hours as well. Despite these laws, employers do not always pay the employee for all the time that they should be. If employees are not being paid for all the time they should, they may be able to receive the compensation they did not receive through wage and hour claims.
Many employees in West Virginia are not paid properly and they deserve the compensation they work hard to earn. Wage and hour claims can be complicated though and experienced attorneys may be able to help people receive what they deserve.