Did your employer fail to pay you everything you earned?
Unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work, missed breaks, unreimbursed expenses, improper deductions, and missing final pay may violate state or federal wage law. When one policy shorts a whole crew, one worker coming forward can bring a claim for the group.
- Unpaid overtime or off-the-clock work
- Missed meal or rest breaks where state law provides them
- Unreimbursed work expenses, improper deductions, or missing final pay
- Misclassification or an incorrect pay method
Wage-and-hour law is simple at its core: your employer has to pay for every hour you work, pay the overtime you're owed, follow your state's break rules, and cover the work costs the law puts on them. When it doesn't, you may recover the unpaid wages, and, where the law allows, interest and penalties, sometimes as a class or representative action on behalf of everyone in the same job. What's required changes from state to state; it costs nothing to find out where you stand, and the first review is private.
What counts as a wage claim.
Most people never see the shortfall, it hides in a paycheck that looks right. These are the patterns worth a second look.
Unpaid overtime
Most hourly employees earn overtime past forty hours a week, and, in states like California, past eight in a day, figured on your regular rate, with bonuses and commissions included, not just your base pay.
How overtime worksMissed meal and rest breaks
Many states require a duty-free meal period and paid rest breaks, and a missed break can add premium pay to your day. What's required, and what a violation is worth, changes at the state line.
What a break is worthMisclassification
Called a 1099 contractor but doing the company's core work under its direction? Many workers are employees in practice regardless of the label, and may be owed the overtime, breaks, and reimbursement that status carries.
Contractor or employeeUnreimbursed expenses
Mileage, tools, a share of your cell phone and home internet, in states that require it, the necessary costs of doing your job are your employer's to repay, not yours to absorb.
Expenses you're owedOff-the-clock work
Pre-shift setup, post-shift cleanup, working through lunch, answering messages at home. If the employer knew or should have known you were working, that time is generally paid.
When off-the-clock is paidPay stubs and final pay
In many states, a willful failure to pay your final wages on time carries a penalty, and a knowing, inaccurate pay stub can carry its own, separate from the wages you're still owed.
What your pay stub must showWhat you can recover.
What a wage claim recovers depends on the facts, the policy, and the state, and only after a covered claim is shown. When a claim succeeds, the outcome often includes:
The overtime, break premiums, and expenses you were underpaid, recoverable for several years back in most states, and in some with interest on what was withheld.
Some states add penalties for a willful failure to pay final wages and for knowing, inaccurate pay stubs, subject to legal limits, which across a crew and a year can add up.
When one policy shorts a whole job the same way, the claim can be brought on behalf of the group, subject to the usual requirements. If such a case settles, eligible workers may be paid from the recovery, sometimes without ever having sued, under the settlement's terms.
A firm built on these cases.
Wage and hour is the core of the firm, unpaid wages, missed breaks, misclassification and expense reimbursement, brought as class and representative actions across California and Washington, through settlement, trial and appeal.
See the full recordWage and hour laws by state.
Deadlines, enforceability, remedies, and the correct filing forum change at the state line. A licensed attorney of the firm leads each state's matters, including Brian Denlinger, admitted in Colorado and Washington.
Common questions.
Am I owed overtime if I'm on a salary?
Potentially, yes. A salary does not make you exempt on its own. The common exemptions require both a salary of at least twice the state minimum wage for full-time work and that you mainly do genuine executive, administrative, or professional duties. If no exemption fits your job, you are non-exempt and may be owed overtime, whatever your title. Because other exemptions can apply, the safe step is to have your specific facts reviewed.
My employer calls me a contractor. Does that end it?
No. In California you are presumed an employee unless the company proves all three parts of the ABC test, and doing the company's core work under its direction often fails that test regardless of a 1099 or a signed agreement, unless a specific statutory exception applies. If you are really an employee, you may be owed overtime, breaks, and expense reimbursement.
I never got approval for the extra hours. Does that matter?
Generally no. If you worked the hours and the employer knew or should have known, the pay is owed even without approval and even if a policy said not to work overtime. A rule against unapproved hours can justify discipline, never withholding pay for work you actually did.
Is the review really free?
Yes. The initial review has no cost or obligation. The firm will review what you share and contact you about possible options and next steps. Bring what you have, pay stubs, schedules, mileage or phone records, messages, for you or for your whole crew.