New Jersey Wage & Hour Attorney

New Jersey's wage and hour laws provide robust protections for employees, including the right to minimum wage, overtime pay, and timely payment of all earned wages. Violations of these laws are widespread — and often affect large numbers of employees at the same employer.

The New Jersey Wage Payment Law, the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) create overlapping protections that, in many cases, allow employees to recover double damages and attorney's fees. New Jersey's wage laws are generally more protective than federal law.

Wage and hour violations often arise from misclassification of employees as independent contractors or exempt employees, failure to pay overtime, off-the-clock work, improper deductions, and tip theft. These violations can be pursued individually or as class actions on behalf of groups of affected employees.

Overtime Violations: Who Is Entitled to Overtime Pay

Under the FLSA and NJ Wage and Hour Law, non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay at 1.5 times their regular rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Many employers misclassify employees as exempt from overtime — as executives, administrators, or professionals — when they do not actually meet the legal criteria for those exemptions. The exemptions are narrowly defined and require both a salary basis test and a duties test. An attorney can assess whether your classification is correct and whether you are owed back overtime.

Independent Contractor Misclassification

Misclassifying employees as independent contractors is one of the most common wage and hour violations. New Jersey uses an 'ABC test' to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor — and the test is difficult for employers to satisfy. Under the ABC test, a worker is presumed to be an employee unless the employer can show that the worker is free from control, performs work outside the usual course of the employer's business, and is customarily engaged in an independently established trade. Misclassified workers are entitled to all the protections of NJ employment law, including overtime, minimum wage, and anti-discrimination protections.

New Jersey Wage Payment Law

The NJ Wage Payment Law requires employers to pay employees all earned wages on regularly scheduled paydays and to pay all final wages promptly upon termination. Violations of the Wage Payment Law can result in the employee recovering the unpaid wages plus liquidated damages of up to 200% of the unpaid wages, plus attorney's fees. This makes NJ wage claims particularly powerful — an employer who fails to pay a $10,000 bonus may ultimately owe $30,000 plus attorney's fees.