I work for a dental office in GA. I am classified as a non-exempt employee. I am paid on a salary basis every two weeks. I make 23000. a year. I have a serious concern about this job. When I was hired the agreement was to work 8-5 Monday-Friday. However, I have found that I work 8-6 or 7 sometimes everyday. I am also required to go to staff meetings during my lunch time without pay whenever they are called. There is also a requirement to work every other weekend for a couple of hours, which I was not told when I was hired. I am given only half of my hourly pay as my overtime pay, and this has only started recently. Am I entitled to time and a half? I would also like to know if I am entitled to overtime pay for the five months that I worked additional hours over 40 without any overtime pay?

Did you agree that your salary was intended to cover all hours per week, for example, up to 45 or some other number? Do your hours fluctuate greatly and from week to week? It makes a difference to the answer.

When I was hired I was told I would work M-F 8-5. I was not told I would work overtime and I was also not told about the weekend work. The number of hours I work overtime do fluctuate. Sometimes I work over 6 hours over in a week sometimes 3.

If your hours do not fluctuate consistently between under 40 hours and over 40 hours, and by a bigger margin that you stated, the employer cannot use the fluctuating workweek pay method, which allows the premium portion of overtime to be paid at variable rates, depending upon how many hours are worked in the week.

The employer appears to be in violation of federal overtime laws. You can contact the state Dept. of Labor, but since Georgia has very few wage and hour laws of its own, they may refer you to the federal Dept. of Labor to file a claim.