An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. While most employers live up to their end of this bargain, some do not. When companies fail to pay overtime to employees who qualify for it, or fail to pay employees minimum wage, the employer is violating the law, and the employees are being cheated. In fact, wage and hour violations rarely happen to only one employee; usually many employees are affected.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and associated regulations sets forth minimum standards regarding wages, hours, and other labor practices for employers throughout the United States.

Wage and hour cases can involve all types of issues, including:

• Failure to pay minimum wage: Some employers try to exploit today’s tough labor market by refusing to pay their employees minimum wage. In many cases, employers will pay their workers “under the table” instead of providing regular paychecks. In fact, if your employer fails to provide you with a pay stub, that is itself a violation of the law. Employees may not agree to waive their right to minimum wage.
• Failure to pay overtime: Employees who are paid by the hour are entitled to time and a half for all hours over 40 in a week. If your manager does not allow you to put any more hours on your time sheet, that is against the law.
• Misclassification: Certain employees are exempt from federal minimum wage and overtime pay for all hours worked over 40 hours a week.. Exempt employees are typically employed as executive, professional, administrative, and outside sales employees; however, job titles do not determine exempt status. To be considered exempt, employees must meet certain tests regarding their job duties under both federal and state employment law. Thus, employees may be classified as managers or supervisors, even though their job duties do not include supervising other employees. When employers misclassify employees to avoid paying overtime, that is also against the law.
• Failure to pay women and men equally: It is against the law for an employer to intentionally pay women and men different wages for the same work, if it is only because of their gender. It is illegal to refuse to hire a woman for a “man’s job” or hire a man for a “woman’s job.” Men and women are entitled to equal consideration for hiring and promotions. You can’t be prohibited from talking with other employees about your rate of pay. Under the Equal Pay Act, each paycheck may be a new violation of the law and begins a new statute of limitations for your lawsuit.
• Working off the clock: The FLSA prohibits off-the-clock work. Employees must be paid for all work-related activities, including time spent attending meetings and training sessions, putting on and taking off protective gear and clothing, booting up computers, cleaning equipment, and taking short breaks that last between 5 and 20 minutes. If you are not being paid for this time, you may have a case for damages.
• Reimbursement of business expenses: Employers must reimburse workers for expenses they incur as part of their jobs, such as travel expenses (but not commuting costs), the purchase of uniforms and certain tools, cell phone usage, and entertainment costs. Increasingly, we find that certain employers are attempting to shift these and other costs onto employees, sometimes in connection with an independent contractor misclassification scheme. Rather than being paid for the work they perform, employees wind up paying for the opportunity to work and bearing their employer’s costs of doing business.
• Unauthorized deductions from paychecks: Except in limited circumstances, an employer may not deduct from an employee’s wages any monies the employee owes to the employer. Instead, the employer is required to seek payment using the same procedures as any other creditor of the employee.