Hamilton-Ryker Misclassified Engineer as Overtime Exempt Worker

Hamilton-Ryker IT Solutions wrongfully classified an engineer for a Texas natural-gas export terminal as salaried rather than as an hourly employee, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Lynwood Pickens, who inspected pipes on the site for a “guaranteed weekly salary” of $800, was not exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act because he was paid based on an underlying $100 hourly rate, not on a salary basis, a split panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said. Pickens appealed when Hamilton-Ryker, his employment agency, convinced a federal court in Nashville to deem him salaried under the ...