Most of the time many of us work longer than the hours we agreed upon in our contracts. For one reason or another we always take some of our personal time and spend it on job issues; therefore this extra work should not be taken for granted. When giving our best effort we all expect recognition and fair validation of our work but in most situations, white collar jobs don't get paid overtime.
According to the U.S. federal law employees who work more than 40 hours per week must be paid overtime. Overtime is calculated in the following way: the regular hourly rate of pay plus 50 percent of that regular rate. The way in which the employee is paid does not matter: weekly, every two weeks or monthly, he/she will always have the right to receive overtime compensation.
As an employee one should never be afraid of fighting for his/her rights. No matter how big or important your employer is his/her duty is to be responsible and fair to his/her workers.
In 2002, more than 400 employees from 24 of Wal-Mart's 27 Oregon stores sued the retailer, accusing it of violating federal and state wage laws. They all claimed that between 1994 and 1999, Wal-Mart forced them to work unpaid overtime. The lawsuit was filed by Carolyn Thiebes and Betty Alderson, who worked in managerial positions in the Salem area.
The workers claimed that managers got them to work off the clock by asking them to clean up the store after they had clocked out and by deleting hours from time records.
Moreover, they said the retailer punished those who claimed overtime and assigned them more functions that the ones someone could accomplish in a regular shift. Anyhow, all the injured workers got to an agreement and decided to file a lawsuit against the world's largest retailer, and they were not afraid. They won the case and Wal-Mart gave them the economic compensation they deserved.
They set the difference and became an example for many people around the U.S.; after this trial Wal-Mart faced thirty-nine other class-action lawsuits.