The Fair Labor Standards Act is not the only law that can help you. Many individual states have their own minimum wage laws, most of which are tougher than the federal law.

Since our law firm is based in Massachusetts, I'll use this state as an example. Massachusetts has its own minimum wage law. As of October, 2000, the Massachusetts minimum wage rate is $6.00 per hour. This means that a company that pays its Massachusetts employees $5.50 per hour is breaking the Massachusetts law, even though it is not breaking the federal law.

So, this means if you work in Massachusetts, and if your job is covered by the FLSA, you must receive at least $6.00 per hour, even though the federal minimum wage is less. Also, this means if you want to know whether your employer is paying the legal minimum wage, you need to contact your state government offices to learn what the minimum wage is in your state.

What's more, some states automatically increase the minimum wage when the federal minimum wage increases. For example, Massachusetts' law says the state's minimum wage automatically increases to 10 cents above the federal minimum wage if the federal minimum wage equals or becomes higher than the state minimum.

When You Are Entitled To Overtime Pay — And When You're Not

Under the FLSA, all companies engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce shall pay all non-exempt employees for each hour worked in excess of forty hours in a workweek at a rate not less than one and one-half times the employee's regular hourly rate — with a few exceptions.

• if your hourly rate is greater than one and one-half times the minimum wage; and
• if more than half of your compensation (for a representative period of at least one month) is from commissions. (Both items #1 and #2 must be true.)

Get Paid For All the Hours You Work (Cont'd)