1. Answer this person’s question: “I work as a pharmacist in a large discount retail store. My employer classifies me as exempt under FLSA. Like other pharmacists, I agree to work a specific number of base hours per week which determines my specific rate of pay. However, the employer has changed my base hours so frequently lately that I am effectively being treated as an hourly employee. There have been weeks I have worked more than 40 hours a week. Do I have a right to overtime?”38
2. Answer this person’s question: “Before I resigned as a sewing manager for a small manufacturing company, where I supervised several employees and received an hourly wage, I regularly arrived at the factory 15 to 45 minutes before the start of my 5: 00 am shift, spending most of that time doing such tasks as reviewing employee schedules, gathering and distributing fabric to my subordinates’ workstations, cleaning work area, etc.—but without pay. Does my former employer owe me overtime pay?”39
In 2009, the federal minimum wage was increased to $ 7.25 per hour. Critics of a federally mandated minimum wage argue that the government should not interfere in the marketplace, and that increases in minimum wages threaten not only job growth but the livelihoods of many small business owners. Supporters of minimum wage increases point to recent studies concluding that raising the minimum wage does not lead to the loss of low- paying jobs.29 More than 130 municipalities, many where living costs are particularly high, have adopted their own “living wage” requirements.30 For example, San Francisco, known for its high cost of living, at this writing has a minimum wage of $ 10.74.31 However, as a 2014 study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows, minimum-wage workers across the United States cannot afford a one-or two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent.32