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Are small-town police and fire departments entitled to overtime?

For a firefighter or police officer in Houston, Texas, overtime is treated differently than in most jobs.

Although the Fair Labor Standards Act requires most workers to receive overtime pay at time and a half after 40 hours of work, firefighters and police officers can only collect overtime pay after working 53 hours in a seven-day period or 47 hours in seven days, respectively.

An employer in these fields must set up a work period of seven to 28 consecutive days to establish an overtime system. Regardless of how the work period is set up, a firefighter can only receive overtime for the hours after 212 worked in 28 days. For police officers, this number is 171 hours.

The Houston unpaid overtime lawyers at Kennedy Hodges also want to point out that departments that have five or less employees are exempt from overtime under the FLSA. Fire and police departments are treated separately, and all fire and law enforcement personnel are counted towards the "five" employees. However, the following types of support employees do not count toward a department's "five" firefighters or police officers:

- Dispatchers

- Mechanics

- Clerks

- Alarm operators

Determining your entitlement to overtime as a Houston firefighter or police officer can be confusing. The best way for you to find out if you should be paid time and a half for certain hours worked is to ask an experienced Texas overtime attorney.

Better yet, ask the lawyers who literally "wrote the book" on overtime claims in Texas. The attorneys at Kennedy Hodges, LLP are the authors of Ten Biggest Mistakes that Can Hurt Your Wage and Overtime Claim. Order your free copy by calling 888.449.2068, or fill out this online form to set up your free case evaluation today.