In the case of Merritt v. Cascade Corporation, Jory Merritt filed a lawsuit against his former employer, Cascade Corporation (Cascade), for untimely payment of overtime wages. This was a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The FLSA establishes that overtime wages need to be paid on an employee’s regular payday. However, Cascade did not pay overtime wages to their employees until the payday of the following pay period. Cascade argued that the reason for doing so was because there was not enough time to calculate and include overtime pay on the same paycheck.
Cascade had filed a motion to dismiss this case. However, the court affirmed that there were many questions regarding whether Cascade’s overtime pay calculations and practice comply with the FLSA. Therefore, the court denied Cascade’s motion to dismiss the case because Merritt had made plausible allegations that required further investigations.
The final ruling is undetermined.
Key lessons from this case:
- Overtime compensation must be included in the paycheck that employees receive and should not be delayed until the next paycheck.
- Employers must have a proper system in place to accurately calculate overtime wages.
- Having strong allegations against an employer can ensure that the court decides to further investigate a case instead of dismissing it.
If you want to know more about overtime regulations, read our guide on Oregon Overtime Laws.
