Pharmaceutical sales representatives are often denied overtime compensation. Pharmaceutical companies attempt to take advantage of pharmaceutical sales representatives by telling them they are exempt from overtime pay pursuant to the outside sales exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act or North Carolina Wage and Hour Act.
For an employee to be denied overtime based on the outside sales exemption, the employee must make sales and be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place of business. The cornerstone of this exemption is that the employee’s primary duty is making sales. Most pharmaceutical sales representatives spend the majority of their time promoting a product that may later be sold. This does not qualify for the exemption, and those pharmaceutical sales representatives should be paid overtime.
Additionally, employers claim employees are exempt from overtime pay because of the administrative exemption. However, the administrative exemption requires pharmaceutical sales representatives to exercise discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. Courts have not found pharmaceutical sales representatives to meet the requirements to be exempt from overtime compensation.
Employees whose right to fully paid wages and overtime are violated by their employer are entitled to damages in individual, collective and class action litigation. Such damages include: unpaid wages, back-pay, liquidated damages (double damages), costs, interest and attorneys’ fees. The statute of limitations is either two or three years depending on whether the violation was willful.
Maginnis Law, PLLC is an unpaid wage and overtime law firm that represents employees in litigation for the recovery of unpaid compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act. The firm is highly knowledgeable in individual and collective employment law litigation. The FLSA and the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act provide employees with the right to minimum wage and overtime pay at time and a half of the regular rate of pay for non-exempt employees. Our firm works to protect and recover wages for workers who have been unlawfully denied their legal right to fair pay by employers.
Contact the Raleigh unpaid wage and overtime lawyers at Maginnis Howard at (919) 526-0450 for a free consultation regarding your rights or submit a confidential new case inquiry here. Maginnis Howard is a Raleigh firm handling employment cases dealing with unpaid wages and overtime throughout Wake County, Cary, Apex, Durham, Vance County, and Henderson. The firm takes certain wage and hour/overtime cases throughout North Carolina, particularly when groups of workers are involved. Contact the firm to discuss your overtime claim today.
