WASHINGTON D.C — If you worked as an unpaid intern and were not paid overtime pay, you may have been cheated out of a significant amount of money. Summer internships are a great way to get into the door of a company or a specific industry, like the arts and entertainment business, but companies cannot overwork you without paying overtime wages. This is a violation of the Federal Wage and Hour Laws.
To determine if you are owed overtime pay for your intern position, it is necessary to evaluate the certain factors. If even one of them is not satisfied, you may have been cheated out of overtime wages. To determine whether an intern is entitled to overtime pay, there must be an analysis done to see if the pay is required.
The following six criteria must be applied to determine if an intern is entitled to overtime wages:
- The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
- The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
- The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
- The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
- The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
- The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
If all of the above criteria are met, then the federal minimum wage and overtime provisions do not apply to the intern. However, overtime pay may be required even if only one of the conditions is not met. The criteria are not “cut and dried” and each one must be scrutinized carefully to see whether it has been satisfied. If you are or were an unpaid intern and believe you were cheated out of overtime pay, you should speak to an experienced overtime pay lawyer to determine if they should have received overtime pay.
Call our experienced team of overtime pay lawyers today at (855) 754-2795 or send us the Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form on the top right of this page and our experienced legal team will evaluate your case. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. This means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.