Off the Clock
If your employer makes you work without paying you, that's illegal. I represent workers in off-the-clock cases.
If your employer requires or permits you to work without paying you for that time, that's a wage theft claim under the FLSA. Pre-shift setup, post-shift cleanup, through-lunch work, after-hours emails or calls, and any other work your employer knows or should know you're doing is compensable. The legal standard is whether the employer "suffered or permitted" the work, and that bar is low. Across two, possibly three, years of unpaid time, the recovery often runs into tens of thousands of dollars, plus time-and-a-half for any hours that pushed you over 40 in a workweek.
If your boss makes you do work without paying you, that's a wage theft claim, and I handle those every day.
Work is work. It doesn't matter whether your supervisor officially clocked you in. If you were working, your employer has to pay you. That's the core rule under the federal wage law.
Who I Represent
I work with warehouse workers doing pre-shift setup, retail staff staying late to clean, nurses answering patient calls on unpaid breaks, delivery drivers doing route prep, and construction workers arriving early to load trucks. Also factory workers entering data after clocking out, security guards doing paperwork off the books, and anyone else told "just log in from home and help with this real quick."
Any job where the employer expects you to work but doesn't want to pay for it.
Common Violations
Here's what I see most often:
Your supervisor tells you to show up 15 minutes early to set up the register, prep equipment, or download files. You're not clocked in. That's work you should be paid for.
You clock out at 5pm but stay an extra 20 minutes answering emails, wrapping up calls, or organizing files. The employer says that's "on your own time." But if you're doing job tasks, it's compensable time.
You're not given a real lunch break. You eat at your desk, answer the phone, or handle customer issues during what you're told is your break. Your time isn't your own, so it's work time. Breaks interrupted by work tasks count.
Your supervisor alters your time records after you clock out. Reducing hours you actually worked. Removing minutes you logged. That's wage theft, straight up.
You get a direct message from your boss at 9pm asking you to handle something. You do it. No compensation. The FLSA doesn't care that it's outside the office. If the employer knows (or should know) you're working, it has to pay.
How the Law Protects You
The FLSA uses a straightforward test: did the employer "suffer or permit" you to work? That means if your employer knew (or reasonably should have known) you were working, it has to pay you, even if you weren't officially clocked in.
Your employer can't unilaterally decide that work doesn't count because it happened at the wrong time or the wrong place. That's not up to them. The Supreme Court addressed this principle in IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, 546 U.S. 21 (2005), holding that under the FLSA's continuous workday rule, all time between the first principal activity and the last principal activity of a workday is compensable, including pre-shift and post-shift work activities that are integral and indispensable to the job.
You're entitled to at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. If you worked overtime (over 40 hours in a week), you're entitled to time-and-a-half for those extra hours.
And here's the thing: I handle these cases on contingency. If there is no recovery, you pay nothing, not even the costs.
What Your Case Could Be Worth
Off-the-clock cases build on a simple foundation: all the hours you worked, at the right wage, plus overtime premiums.
If you worked 50 hours a week for a year and were only paid for 40, we calculate 10 hours per week times 52 weeks times your hourly wage. Then we add in the overtime premiums (the extra 50% on top of your regular rate for any hours over 40 per week).
The FLSA lets you recover damages twice: once for the actual wages stolen, and again as liquidated damages (a penalty equal to the unpaid wages). So if you're owed $10,000 in back pay, you can recover up to $20,000.
We can typically look back 2 to 3 years of work history, depending on the circumstances.
No Cost to You
I work on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront, and if there is no recovery, you pay nothing at all, not even the costs. No surprises, no bills in the mail.
Contact Me
30+ years employment law experience. 15+ years FLSA-only.
If you're working without getting paid, or if your hours are being shorted, call me at (512) 799-2048 or email me at doug@welmakerlaw.com. We'll talk about what happened and what your case might be worth. The conversation is free, and there's no obligation.
Related Reading
- Off-the-Clock Work at Home: Answering Emails and Texts After Hours Is Compensable — Why after-hours digital work counts as compensable time your employer has to pay for.
- Automatic Lunch Deductions: When It's Illegal to Deduct Time You Never Had — How automatic deductions become off-the-clock violations when you're still on duty.
- My Employer Didn't Keep Time Records: Can I Still Recover Overtime? — What happens when the employer's records are incomplete or missing entirely.
- How Long Do I Have to File an Unpaid Overtime Claim in Texas? — The two-year and three-year statute of limitations, how willfulness extends it, and why timing matters.