I have been working for this company since mid 2005. I was put on salary. And was told that because I am salary I must put in what ever time is needed to get the jobs done.

I do manual labor 90% of the time. Shipping and paperwork 5%, drawings scheduling and technical end another 5%. But my main job is manual labor.

I have always thought since I was salary I have to do what is best for the company. I never gave it much more thought. In Sept 2005 I brought in someone to help. They work full time with me.

I have many documented emails about needing to work overtime to get orders out. But I have never seen a dime of that overtime. It goes to hourly person working with me.

I found out that I have put in 160+ hours every year since then (450+ hours total)

I just found out what the laws are and how they apply. So I realized that if I get in less then 40hrs I must make up the time or use part of an APL. I can only use full or half APL so if I get 38hours in I have to use 4hrs which is really now 42hrs. Guess what same pay.

I have documented all hours worked and was even asked why I did not write down 40 instead of 38hrs. I told my boss that would not be honest would it. That is not me. and not right. I explained that I considered it stealing from the company.

When I found out about laws and overtime it states that I need 2 full time people I have direct control over. I do not.

I went to my boss about it. and told him I was not happy because of being treated this way. He said he would get back to me. And after one month he said. He had no control on what happen in the past. He acknowledged that overtime. But then stated in order to get it you would need to sue the company and that 4400 would be less then half.

I said it would not be 4400 it was close to 10g's and he said sure the company.

SO now I am left with the fact he knows he has treated me wrong. And is flaunting the fact I would loose the money to court and lawyer fees.

So he know they have done wrong but wont correct it.

I do not want to loose my job but I also know that if I sue there will be retaliation against me.

What to do?

"Salary" and "hourly" are merely pay methods. The real issue here is nonexempt or exempt. Based on what you have described as your primary duties, I don't see any way the company can justify classifying you as exempt. The requirement to manage employees is only applicable to the Executive exemption.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17a_overview.pdf

Having said that, you are, IMO, eligible for overtime pay.

You have two options. You can file a claim with the federal Dept. of Labor, which will only go back 2 years, 3 years if the violation is willful, which it appears it is. That is free.

To my recollection, you can sue for double damages AND attorney's fees. That's going to be a LOT more than the value of the overtime pay itself. And with a civil suit, you may be able to go back further than the DOL allows, although the FLSA requires such time records to be maintained by the employer for only 3 years. If you have such time records back further, you may be able to use them.

It's definitely worth contacting an attorney about. Ask the attorney about possible retaliation and your standing with that as well. The employer does not have to know you have contacted an attorney unless/until you actually file either the law suit or the DOL claim.

So, the employer has said they're going to fix this going forward?

Employers that like this make me :mad: