Unpaid Overtime Lawyer: Fighting for Your Right to Fair Pay

Working extra hours should mean a bigger paycheck. Period. When you stay late or work through lunch, you expect to be paid for it. So, when you look at your pay stub and the numbers don’t add up, it feels like a slap in the face.

You are not just imagining it. Employers often avoid paying proper overtime. They might misclassify you, ask you to work “off the clock,” or just ignore the law. This is wage theft, and an unpaid overtime lawyer can help you recover your money.

The rule is simple. Under federal law, you are owed overtime if you are a “non-exempt” employee and work more than 40 hours in a single workweek.

Your employer cannot average your hours over two weeks. If you work 50 hours one week and 30 the next, you are still owed 10 hours of overtime for that first week.

Overtime pay isn’t just your regular rate. The law requires time-and-a-half pay.

It works like this:

• Your Regular Rate: $20 per hour
• Your Overtime Rate: $30 per hour (1.5 x $20)
• You Work: 42 hours
• Your Pay: (40 hours x $20) + (2 hours x $30) = $800 + $60 = $860

If your employer just paid you $840 ($20 x 42 hours), you were shorted $20 for that week alone. It adds up fast.

Also, your “regular rate” includes more than just your hourly wage. It must include most bonuses, commissions, and shift differentials. Many employers get this wrong, underpaying every single overtime hour you work.

Here is the main trick employers use to avoid paying overtime. They tell an employee they are “exempt.”

• Non-Exempt: You get overtime.
• Exempt: You do not get overtime.

Your employer cannot just call you exempt to get out of paying you. Your job title means nothing. Being paid a salary means nothing.

What matters are your actual, day-to-day job duties.

Generally, you are exempt (and not owed overtime) only if you meet specific, high-level duties. Think:

• Executives: True managers who can hire or fire and whose main job is managing people.
• Administrative: High-level office workers who have real power to make important company decisions. Not a “team lead” who does the same work as everyone else.
• Professionals: Learned professionals like doctors, lawyers, or architects with advanced degrees.

If you are a “blue-collar” worker, a first responder, or a salaried employee making under the federal threshold, you are almost always owed overtime. Many “assistant managers” who spend 90% of their time running a cash register are owed overtime.

See if any of these sound familiar.

• Working “Off the Clock”: Your boss asks you to clock out and then finish cleaning or prep for the next day.
• Misclassifying You: Calling you an “independent contractor” (giving you a 1099) when they control your schedule and your work.
• Ignoring “Comp Time”: Giving you paid time off next week instead of paying you for overtime this week. This is illegal for private companies.
• Automatic Break Deductions: The system automatically deducts 30 minutes for lunch, even when you work straight through it.

Paying a “Day Rate”: Paying you a flat rate per day, no matter how many hours you work. This is common in construction and often violates overtime pay laws.

You can file a complaint with the Department of Labor. But hiring an unpaid overtime lawyer levels the playing field.

Your company has lawyers. You should, too.

Proving your case is hard. An attorney knows how to get the time sheets legally and records you are not allowed to see. We know how to build a case even if your employer “lost” the records.

Most importantly, the law protects you from being fired for asking for your pay. If your employer retaliates, that is a separate lawsuit.

This is why employers fight so hard. When you win a wage and hour lawyer case, you can recover:

1. Your Unpaid Wages: The full amount of overtime you were denied for the past two (or three) years.
2. Liquidated Damages: The law punishes the employer by making them pay you double your unpaid wages.
3. Attorneys’ Fees: If you win, the employer has to pay your lawyers’ fees.

This means you can hire a top law firm without paying a dollar out of your pocket. We only get paid if we win your case.

1. Gather Your Pay Stubs. Collect every pay stub and any employee handbooks or pay policies you have.
2. Keep a Private Log. Use a notebook or a private app to track the actual hours you work every day. Write down when you start, when you stop, and when you take breaks.
3. Call a Lawyer. Do not confront HR or your boss. Your first call should be to an unpaid overtime lawyer. The consultation is free and 100% confidential.

You earned that money. Your employer does not get to keep it. Call us today for a free, confidential case review. We will figure out what you are owed and make a plan to get it back.