The cleaning industry runs on pay structures designed to make hours disappear. Federal law counts the hours anyway.
Who do I represent?
- Commercial janitorial crews and night cleaners
- Office, medical, and industrial cleaning staff
- Floor care and carpet technicians
- Residential cleaning company workers
- Crew leads paid flat rates or per-building amounts
What are the most common overtime violations in janitorial work?
Per-building and flat-rate pay that ignores hours. Getting paid $400 a week to clean a route of buildings is not legal if the route takes 55 hours. The flat amount becomes the basis for calculating the true hourly rate, and the overtime premium is owed on top for every hour over 40.
The franchise trap. Some cleaning companies sell workers a so-called franchise or cleaning account, hand them a 1099, and call them business owners. The reality: the company finds the customers, sets the price, sets the schedule, holds the contract, and can take the account away. That is not a business owner. That is an employee with a deduction taken for the privilege of being mislabeled. Employees get overtime.
Unpaid travel between buildings. Once your workday starts at the first building, the drive to the second and third is work time. Workers who clean multiple sites a night routinely lose five to ten hours a week here.
Off-the-clock supply runs and load-outs. Picking up supplies, loading equipment at the shop, and dropping keys after the last building all count as hours worked.
Two checks, one employer. Splitting a worker's hours between two related cleaning entities so neither check shows overtime does not work. If it is functionally one employer, the hours add up across both checks.
How does the law protect you?
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires time and a half for every hour over 40 in a workweek. Whether you are classified as an employee or a franchisee is decided by the economic reality test, which looks at who controls the work, who owns the customer relationships, and whether you are genuinely in business for yourself. For most cleaning workers sold a franchise, every factor points the same direction.
When the company kept no honest time records, which flat-rate operations rarely do, the law lets you prove your hours through your own reasonable recollection. The missing records become the employer's problem, not yours.
What could your case be worth?
Back pay covers the unpaid overtime for the recoverable period, which is two years from the date you file, or three years if the violation was willful. Liquidated damages can double that amount. The free overtime calculator on this site will give you a rough estimate in a few minutes.
What does it cost to bring a case?
I handle all cases on a contingency fee basis. My fee is a percentage of the recovery, agreed to in writing before the case starts. If there is no recovery, you pay nothing, not even the costs.
Contact me
If you are cleaning long nights for flat pay, call me. I will ask about your route, your hours, and how the company has you classified. Then I will tell you whether you have a case.
Call (512) 799-2048 or use the contact form. The consultation is free.
Doug Welmaker is a Texas-licensed plaintiff-side overtime attorney (Texas Bar No. 00788641) with more than 30 years of practice and 15 years focused exclusively on FLSA overtime cases. This page provides general legal information, not legal advice about your specific situation. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this page.