Remote Work & “Digital” Wage Theft Lawyer

Your office is your home, but your time still belongs to you. Many employers believe that the flexibility of working from home allows them to ignore federal and state labor laws. They expect you to be available at all hours. They expect you to use your own equipment without pay. This is telecommuting wage theft.

The bottom line is simple. If you are working, you must be paid. Whether you are at a desk in a high-rise or on your couch, every minute of labor requires compensation. If you are a non-exempt employee, you are legally entitled to overtime pay for any work exceeding forty hours per week. Employers who fail to track and pay for this “digital” labor are breaking the law. A lawyer specializing in remote work unpaid wages can help you recover your stolen time and money.

Wage theft in the digital age is often invisible. It does not always look like a missing paycheck. It looks like a Slack message at 8:00 PM that you feel compelled to respond to. It looks like fifteen minutes spent troubleshooting a VPN before you can even log in to the company portal.

Employers often argue that these small tasks are “de minimis” or too small to matter. In 2026, the law is moving away from that excuse. If these tasks are a regular part of your job, they are compensable work time.

The Difference Between Exempt and Non-Exempt Remote Workers

Your job title does not determine your rights. Your actual job duties and your salary level do.

• Non-Exempt Workers: Most remote workers in customer service, data entry, and administrative roles are non-exempt. You must be paid for every hour worked. You must receive 1.5 times your hourly rate for unpaid overtime working from home.

Exempt Workers: These are usually high-level managers or professionals with significant independent authority. Even for these workers, certain laws regarding expense reimbursement still apply.

Digital wage theft usually occurs in the “margins” of the workday. These are the minutes before you officially start and after you officially sign off.

Answering Emails After Work Laws

You finished your shift at 5:00 PM. At 6:30 PM, your manager sends an “urgent” email asking for a status update. You spend ten minutes replying. This is work.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, “to suffer or permit to work” means the employer must pay you if they know or have reason to believe you are working. If your manager sees you responding to emails or Slack messages at night, they are legally required to ensure that time is recorded and paid. Answering emails after work laws protect you from this unpaid “shadow work.”

Off the Clock Logins and Tech Issues

Many remote call centers require employees to have their software programs open and ready to go the moment their shift starts. If it takes ten minutes to boot up your computer, log into the VPN, and open five different applications, those ten minutes are work time.

The same rule applies to IT support. If your home Wi-Fi goes down and you spend an hour on the phone with your internet provider to get back online for work, that is compensable time. You are “waiting to be engaged” so you can perform your duties.

When you work in an office, the company pays for the desk, the chair, the computer, and the electricity. When you work from home, those costs shift to you.

Many states, including California and Illinois, require employers to reimburse employees for necessary business expenses. This is known as bring your own device reimbursement.

What Expenses Should Be Reimbursed?

• A portion of your monthly home internet bill.
• A portion of your personal cell phone bill if used for work calls.
• Essential hardware like monitors, keyboards, or headsets.
• The cost of specialized software or subscriptions required for your role.

If your employer provides no stipend or reimbursement, they are effectively cutting your hourly wage. This can sometimes drop your actual pay below the legal minimum wage.

The biggest hurdle in a remote work unpaid wages case is proof. Employers will claim they had no idea you were working late. You must build a digital paper trail to prove your hours.

Exporting Your Activity Logs

Most digital workplaces leave a massive trail of metadata. You should regularly save or export:

• Slack or Teams History: These timestamps prove exactly when you were active and communicating.
• Email Metadata: Sent folders show the time and date of your responses after official hours.
• VPN and Portal Logins: Your IT department tracks when you log in and out. You can often request these records.
• Zoom or Google Meet Logs: Meeting durations and participant lists prove you were engaged in company business.

Keeping a Manual Time Log

Automated systems can fail or be manipulated. Keep a simple notebook or a personal spreadsheet. Note the exact time you started “pre-shift” activities and when you finally stopped “post-shift” communications. This manual log serves as vital evidence in a lawsuit.

A new development in 2026 involves the restriction of “stay or pay” agreements. Some remote companies tried to force workers to stay for a specific term or pay back “training costs.” Federal regulators have significantly limited these contracts.

If your employer is threatening to withhold your final paycheck to cover training expenses because you quit, they are likely breaking the law. These agreements are often used to trap remote workers in low-paying roles. We can help you challenge these illegal contract terms.

One of the most complex parts of telecommuting is the multi-state nature of the work. You might live in Florida but work for a company based in New York.

Generally, the laws of the state where you physically perform the work apply to you. If you live in California, you are likely protected by California’s strict overtime and meal break laws, even if your boss is three thousand miles away. Employers often try to hide behind the laws of their home state to avoid paying higher wages. A lawyer ensures you get the benefit of the strongest protections available to you.

Fighting a company from your home office feels lonely. Our firm bridges that gap. We use technology to fight technology.

We Analyze the Metadata

We do not just take your word for it. We work with experts to pull the metadata from your work accounts. We can show a judge exactly how many hours of unpaid labor the company “permitted” you to perform.

We Calculate Your Total Damages

We look at every missed minute. We calculate the unpaid overtime. We add in the missing reimbursements for your home office. We then seek “liquidated damages.” In many federal cases, this means the court doubles your total back pay as a penalty for the employer’s behavior.

We Stop Retaliation

You might fear that speaking up will get you fired. Federal law makes it illegal for an employer to retaliate against you for a wage and hour claim. If they fire you or cut your hours because you asked for your pay, we add a retaliation claim to your lawsuit. This can significantly increase your final settlement.

Working from home is a job, not a favor your employer is doing for you. You are providing your skills, your time, and your own space to help their business succeed. In exchange, they must follow every letter of the law.

Do not let your “flexible schedule” become an excuse for the company to steal your evenings and weekends. If you are answering Slack messages at midnight, you should be getting paid for it. If you are paying for the high-speed internet your job requires, the company should be footing part of that bill.

Start Your Recovery Today

Our legal team understands the specific challenges of the remote workforce. We have recovered millions for workers who were told their “off-the-clock” digital work did not count.

We offer a free, private consultation to analyze your digital footprint and your pay stubs. We work on a contingency basis. You pay nothing unless we recover money for you. There is no risk to your finances and no upfront cost.

Take the first step toward reclaiming your time. Every day you wait is another day of wages that could be lost to the statute of limitations.

Call us at (615) 242-0434 or fill out our online form to get your free case review.