Overtime Without Pay

Most employees who work more than forty hours in a week, or more than eight hours in a day in some cases, are entitled to overtime pay, usually equal to 1½ times the usual hourly rate. Federal and state laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), set standards for determining overtime wages. Please see our wage and overtime hour violations page for more information on the laws that protect workers. The following list includes some common practices by which an employee does not receive overtime pay that they have earned. If any of these has happened to you, please contact us to see if our team of Chicago overtime lawyers can assist you.

Situations Where You May Be Entitled to Overtime Pay

1. Non-Hourly Compensation
   • You receive a “flat salary” no matter how many hours per week you work, but you are not a manager or supervisor.
   • You receive a “flat salary” and have a title like “manager” or “supervisor,” but have no actual decision-making authority.
2. Required Work Outside of Regular Business Hours
   • Your employer does not allow you to clock in until a set start time, even if you arrived earlier and began working.
   • Your employer requires you to arrive at a certain time to prepare for the work day, including putting on a uniform or other gear, but does not allow you to clock in until a set start time.
   • Your employer makes you clock out at a set end time, but requires you to stay to clean up, change out of a uniform, or finish other work-related tasks.
   • You work through your lunch break, but your employer requires you to clock out anyway.
   • You regularly work through your lunch break because you cannot get away from the workload otherwise.
   • You spend a significant amount of time, when you are away from work, traveling for work or responding to work-related text messages or emails.
   • Your employer requires you to be “on call” during non-work hours, and to be able to report to work on short notice.
   • Your employer requires you to take work home and complete it off the clock.
   • You are a Field Service Technician, or hold a similar position, and must call in from home to get your daily schedule, but are not paid for that time or for the time spent traveling to your first assignment.
3. Improper Timekeeping or Hours-of-Work Policies
   • Your employer keeps sloppy time records and therefore shorts you on overtime pay.
   • Your employer averages your hours over a period of two or more weeks to calculate overtime: e.g. you work fifty hours one week and thirty hours the following week, but your employer denies you overtime for the first week because you worked an average of forty hours per week.
   • You work more than forty hours in a week, but your employer denies you overtime pay because you did not get permission for overtime, even though your employer knew or had reason to know that you were working long hours.

Unlawful Alternatives to Overtime Pay

• Your employer does not pay you for overtime, but pays occasional “bonuses” that do not equal time-and-a-half.
• You work for tips, and your employer does not make up the difference when your total pay does not equal the minimum hourly wage.
• You work for tips, and your employer requires you to share your tips with others who are not entitled to tips.
• You work for a non-government employer who gives you “comp time” instead of overtime pay.

Helping workers in the Chicago area, the overtime lawyers at Nationwide Consumer Rights bring decades of experience with wage and overtime hours litigation. We have dedicated our practice to helping employees around the country who are wrongfully deprived of overtime pay. To schedule a free and confidential consultation with one of our Chicago overtime attorneys, please contact us online or at 630-333-0000.