Unpaid Wages and Overtime:
What Workers Need to Know
Federal law protects most workers in the United States, regardless of job title, industry, or how they are paid. Josephson Dunlap handles unpaid wage and overtime cases exclusively, for workers across every industry and pay structure.
Your Job Type
How you are paid affects how your overtime is calculated. It does not affect whether your job has to legally pay you overtime. Most workers are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The exemptions are narrow. Select your job type below to find out what the law requires and what you may be owed.
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About Josephson Dunlap
30+ Years
Legal Experience
Our team's unpaid overtime attorneys bring decades of wage and hour litigation expertise.
100,000+
Workers Represented
Wage theft attorneys representing employees across all industries nationwide.
1,800+
Successful Cases
Unpaid overtime attorney cases filed and resolved in federal and state courts.
$100M+
Recovered
Millions in unpaid wages, overtime, and damages recovered for employees.
Your Job Type
Hourly Workers
Hourly workers are entitled to overtime at one and a half times their regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek. That sounds simple. Where most employers get it wrong is in what goes into the regular rate. Bonuses, shift differentials, and certain other pay must be included before overtime is calculated. When they are left out, every overtime hour in that pay period is short.
Salaried Workers
Being paid a salary does not make you exempt from overtime. To be exempt, a salaried worker must pass both a salary threshold test and a duties test. Many employers skip the duties test entirely and assume salary alone is enough. For most workers whose day-to-day job does not involve real management authority or independent professional judgment, that assumption is wrong.
Day Rate Workers
A flat daily rate does not eliminate the right to overtime. Federal law requires overtime for most day rate workers who exceed 40 hours in a workweek. The 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Helix Energy v. Hewitt confirmed that even high-earning day rate workers are entitled to overtime when their pay is not structured as a guaranteed weekly salary.
Independent Contractors
The label in your contract does not determine your legal status. Federal law looks at how the work actually functions. Workers who are directed by a supervisor, use company equipment, work set schedules, and do work central to the company's business may be legally classified as employees regardless of what their agreement says. Misclassified workers may be owed years of unpaid overtime.
Healthcare Workers
Most healthcare workers are entitled to overtime. Shift differentials and bonuses must be factored into the overtime rate. Off-the-clock charting, interrupted meal breaks, and automatic time deductions on shifts where no real break occurred are among the most common violations in the industry. Travel nurses and per diem workers face additional overtime calculation issues tied to stipend pay.
Mining Workers
Mining workers face some of the most frequently miscalculated overtime in any industry. Production bonuses and hazard pay must be included in the overtime rate. Required pre-shift safety meetings and equipment checks are generally paid work time. Underground travel time may be compensable depending on the circumstances.
Common Wage Violations
Underpayment rarely looks obvious on a pay stub. Most workers who are owed back wages have no idea the error is occurring because the check shows overtime was paid. The problem is usually in how the rate was calculated, not whether overtime appeared at all.
Unpaid Overtime
The most common violation. Employers miscalculate the overtime rate, exclude hours from the weekly total, or pay straight time for hours that legally required time-and-a-half.
Off-the-Clock Work
Any time your employer requires or allows you to work without recording those hours is a violation. Pre-shift setup, post-shift cleanup, required training, and responding to work messages outside scheduled hours all count as work time and must be paid.
Employee Misclassification
Employers label workers as exempt, as independent contractors, or as managers to avoid overtime obligations. The label does not determine the legal outcome. The actual working relationship does.
Time Shaving
Employers who round time records down or edit timesheets reduce recorded hours. Small daily adjustments compound into significant amounts over months and years.
Meal and Rest Break Violations
Many states require paid rest breaks and uninterrupted meal periods. Automatic deductions applied to shifts where no real break occurred are deductions from pay the worker actually earned.
Bonus Miscalculations
Non-discretionary bonuses must be included when calculating the regular rate of pay. When employers leave them out, the overtime rate for any week that bonus was paid is lower than the law requires.
Minimum Wage Violations
Federal and state minimum wage laws apply to most employees. Tipped workers, piece-rate workers, and workers paid by project are among those most frequently affected when total compensation falls below the applicable minimum.
Why Clients Trust Us
Our Values
Types of Unpaid Wage Claims We Handle
We handle the full spectrum of wage and hour violations under federal and state law, with particular expertise in:
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Employee Misclassification
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Expense Reimbursement
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Untimely Wage Payment
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Meal and Rest Break Violations
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Employer Tip Theft
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Minimum Wage Violations
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Off-the-clock Work
MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
ANDREW DUNLAP
RICHARD SCHREIBER
OLIVIA BEALE
ALYSSA WHITE
JULIA CLINE
SCOTT STOTTLEMYRE
Unpaid overtime Lawyers Fighting for Workers Nationwide
With more than two decades of experience, our unpaid wage attorneys have helped workers throughout the U.S. stand up to employers who would seek to cheat them out of fair wages.
Josephson Dunlap handles unpaid wage and overtime cases for workers across every pay structure, including:
We handle claims involving a wide range of violations, including:
- Employee Misclassification
- Meal & Rest Break Violations
- Delayed or Untimely Wages
- Off-the-Clock Work
Josephson Dunlap handles these cases exclusively. That focus means we know this area of law in detail and have the staff and resources to pursue claims of any size. Whether its an individual worker or a nationwide class action, we have the expertise to recover what is rightfully owed. We have helped more than 100,000 workers recover wages across all 50 states.
Frequently Asked Questions About Unpaid Overtime
Any hour worked past 40 in a single workweek must be paid at one and a half times your regular rate. The workweek is a fixed seven-day period set by your employer. Hours do not carry over between workweeks and the workweek cannot change from to week to week in order to avoid paying workers overtime.
No. Federal law requires time-and-a-half for hours past 40. Paying a flat rate for all hours, including overtime hours, is a violation. The difference between what you received and what you should have received may be recoverable.
No. Federal law prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who file wage claims or participate in related proceedings. If an employer retaliates, by cutting hours, changing your schedule, or terminating your employment, that is a separate violation with its own consequences.
Waivers of FLSA rights are generally not enforceable. You cannot legally sign away your right to overtime pay. Arbitration agreements may affect how a claim is filed, but they do not eliminate your right to recover unpaid wages. An attorney can review your specific agreement and explain your options.
The review is free. Josephson Dunlap doesn't ask anyone to pay out of pocket to find out if they could be owed for their overtime. Anything you discuss with our legal team is confidential, and there's no obligation to do anything.
It may. Certain bonuses must be factored into your regular rate before overtime is calculated. If your employer paid you a bonus during a week when you worked overtime but did not adjust your overtime rate, your overtime may have been underpaid for that period.
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