WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A former American Humane Society employee alleges the non-profit owes her more than $11,000 in unpaid overtime.
Plaintiff Stephanie Branscomb, a Palm Beach County resident, filed her lawsuit January 30 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Jan. 30.
She contends the American Humane Association, which was rebranded as the American Humane Society in 2025, failed to pay the mandatory overtime wages as required under federal law.
Branscomb was employed by the animal welfare organization as the communications and events coordinator from Aug. 10, 2025 to Nov. 10, 2025.
According to her six-page complaint, her job duties included routine administrative duties such as processing invoices, submitting contracts for events, routing documents for payment and coding, communicating with donors, collecting individual payments, data entry for directories through mail merges, and performing a variety of outreach work tied to the Hero Dog Awards.
She claims the association required her to work 20 additional hours each week, including evenings, weekends, and work performed from home.
“Plaintiff regularly worked Saturdays and was instructed on multiple occasions that she should ‘put only 40 hours’ on her timesheets regardless of the actual hours she worked,” her complaint states.
“Plaintiff estimates that Defendant failed to compensate her for an average of twenty hours per week in each working week of her employment.”
According to Branscomb’s filing, her annual compensation was $65,000 a year; her weekly rate was $1,250; her regular hourly rate was $31.25 an hour. Her overtime rate is $46.88 an hour, she claims.
“Using the conservative estimate of twenty hours of overtime per week for approximately twelve weeks, Plaintiff is owed at least $937.60 in unpaid overtime per week, amounting to a total of $11,251.20 in unpaid wages,” her complaint states.
Branscomb alleges she raised concerns about the lack of overtime pay early in her employment. However, she was told by both a supervisor and office manager that overtime was never paid and 60-hour workweeks were “just how it is.”
After asking how to properly record her hours and seeking clarification about her workload and job duties, she claims her employer became “noticeably hostile.” She allegedly stopped receiving responses to her emails and was excluded from normal communication.
Soon after, she was “abruptly” terminated without explanation and told she was “not a good fit,” she claims.
Branscomb alleges the organization’s failure to properly compensate her was “intentional” and “willful,” and is in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
She seeks general and compensatory damages, liquidated damages, prejudgment interest, and attorneys’ fees.
Scott Law Team LLC in Jupiter, Florida, is representing her.
Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks has been assigned the case.
