Frequently Asked Questions About Unpaid Overtime

If you work more than 40 hours in a workweek and you are not paid time and a half for the hours over 40, you may have a claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The big exception is whether you are properly classified as exempt. Job title alone does not control. What matters is what you actually do day to day, how you are paid, and whether your duties meet one of the FLSA's exemption tests. If you are not sure, the consultation is free.

Maybe. The FLSA does not care what label your employer puts on you. It cares whether you are economically dependent on the company. Courts look at things like who controls your schedule, who supplies your equipment, whether you can work for other companies, whether the work requires special skill, and how integrated you are into the business. If those factors line up, you are an employee for FLSA purposes regardless of the 1099, and you are owed overtime.

No. Being paid a salary is one piece of the exempt analysis, not the whole thing. To be properly exempt from overtime, you generally have to be paid on a salary basis at or above the federal threshold AND your primary duties have to fit one of the FLSA's exemptions, like executive, administrative, or professional. Most exempt misclassification cases turn on the duties test, not the salary level. If your job is mostly hands-on work and the manager title is in name only, you are probably owed overtime.

Two years for ordinary FLSA violations and three years if the employer's violation was willful. The clock runs back from the date you file suit, not from when you first complained. The longer you wait, the more wages drop off the back end. Move quickly.

No. The FLSA has a separate retaliation provision that protects you for asking questions about your pay, complaining internally, filing with the Department of Labor, or filing suit. If you are fired or punished for raising the issue, you have a separate retaliation claim with its own remedies, including reinstatement, back pay, and liquidated damages.

Nothing up front. The consultation is free. If I take your case, I represent you on a contingency fee, which means I only get paid if I recover money for you. If there is no recovery, you pay nothing, not even the costs.

Yes. The FLSA is a federal law, and the analysis is the same in every state. I file cases in federal courts across the country. Where we file depends on where you worked, where the employer is located, and where the violation happened, not where the firm is based.

It depends. A clean individual case with a defendant that wants to resolve it can settle in a few months. A contested misclassification case or a collective action with multiple plaintiffs can take a year or longer. Most cases settle before trial, but I prepare every case as if it is going to trial, because that is the only way to get the best result.

Not by itself. The executive exemption requires that you actually manage the enterprise or a department, that you customarily direct the work of two or more full-time employees, and that you have real authority to hire, fire, or promote (or that your input on those decisions carries particular weight). If your day looks more like running a register, stocking shelves, or covering shifts than supervising people, the title is not going to save the exemption.

Anything you have. Pay stubs, offer letter, employment agreement, schedule, time records, any handbook or arbitration agreement, text messages or emails about your hours or pay. If you have nothing, bring yourself. We can usually figure out the basics from a 30-minute conversation, and we can subpoena pay records later if a case is filed.