LAWS BY JOB OR INDUSTRY

Overtime for Construction Workers

The exemptions under the FLSA do not apply to manual laborers or other “blue collar” workers, including non-management construction workers, who perform work involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy. These “blue collar” employees gain the skills and knowledge required for performance of their routine manual and physical work through apprenticeships and on the-job training, not through the prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction required for exempt learned professional employees. Constructions workers and other blue-collar workers are entitled to overtime pay regardless if the employer pays them a “salary.”

Non-management employees in production, maintenance, construction and similar occupations such as carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, iron workers, craftsmen, operating engineers, longshoremen, construction workers and laborers are entitled to minimum wage and overtime premium pay under the FLSA, no matter how highly paid they might be.

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