Which Employees Are Entitled to Overtime Pay

[DevinCakes]

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Virginia, Fairfax Co.

Hired as temp, Administrative Assistant within a small business, (LLC), a Dance company
Duties are organizing, printing stage diagrams, faxing, answering phones, assisting in loading supplies, accounting for costumes (though not in an inventory sense, just availability), recording sizes of costumes, emailing, making labels, driving to dance studios, driving to walmart/staples to pick up supplies.

Paid hourly.

At interview, they said I would only work 30 hours per week and could I start the following day.
I did. They showed me a binder where I would write my hours. It wasn't until after a week of logging that I came to understand that payroll is done only once a month/Employees get paid once a month.

Also, soon after starting, my shifts would soon reach 11 hours per day. On one stretch, I worked 12 days in a row with out a day off. It wasn't until I imposed a day off that I finally got one. They don't make a weekly schedule, they just tell you to show up the next day and decide what time I needed to come in off the top of their heads, though 10am to 9pm (or later) became the norm

Also, on my first day, I was told I would drive to another location, a dance studio 16 miles away and that I could claim .50 per mile.
These trips from her home office to dance studios became frequent and often I would return to the office. On days that I would drive to the office, then drive to the studio, and then drive home, I only documented my one way trip to the studio.

Now that its the end of the month and I started adding up my hours, I asked how overtime is paid via email (I asked because to me, it was a given that I rated it but also because I had once lived in California and I wasn't sure if overtime was paid after 8 hours or after 40 hours or if being paid monthly effected how overtime was paid. I relied on them providing me an informed and legal answer rather than having to do my own research). I didn't receive a reply.
Instead, once I arrived to work later that morning, my boss asked to talk to me alone.
She said "we don't usually pay overtime, we're a small business but if you are expecting it, we can make an exception just this once"
She had also announced it to her office manager that the company would no longer pay mileage. The office manager told myself and a few other co-workers that only trips to walmart/staples would be compensated at 50 cents per mile and that our trips to the studio was just part of the job and would fall under our regular hourly wage.

I've done a little bit of internet digging and this is what I've come to understand (I think, I hope...)


****
According to
Dept of Labor and Industry http://www.doli.virginia.gov/laborla...qs_wagep1.html
and
Viginia Code http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp...00+cod+40.1-29
and
Average Weekly Wage for Farifax county VA http://www.bls.gov/ro3/qcewva.pdf



That unless I’m salaried, OR an executive OR earning a 150% or more of the Average Weekly Wage for Fairfax County ($1479 in 2011), in other words, earning $2218 a week, this company is REQUIRED under federal and state law to not only pay me overtime after 40hrs a week, but also start paying the rest of her employees at twice a month.


Is my conclusion correct?
****

I’m concerned about her claiming that my duties fall under the level of responsibility needed to meet the administrative exemption as her office manager. (Though her office manager makes it a point to not exceed 8 hours of work per day)

I’m also concerned about not having to opportunity to agree to being paid once a month. I understand that if I didn’t agree, I probably wouldn’t have been hired or even fired for it perhaps?
Or not seeing or reading any company policies stating the mileage or what trips are considered regular duties.

I just want to make absolutely certain I'm understanding this clearly and that I'm looking at any and all arguments she may try to get out of paying me.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The statute you cite (Virginia Statutes Sec. § 40.1-29) is explicit about the payment of hourly employees and the exceptions that apply. If under that statute you are to be paid not less than twice per month, then that's what your employer is supposed to do.

If you have been instructed to document your hours on a time sheet and, for some reason, choose not to document all of your hours, your employer won't know that you're making a claim for those hours. Or is it mileage you're not repoorting? Either way.

If you're a part-time administrative assistant, I very much doubt that you are exempt from overtime.

[cbg]

FYI, "salaried" and "exempt from overtime" are not synonymous. Not all salaried employees are exempt; not all hourly paid employees are non-exempt.

It is the exempt status and not the method of pay that determines whether overtime is due.