Can I Sue My Employer for Unpaid Overtime?

Can I sue my employer for unpaid overtime?  If you are a non-exempt employee and have worked over 40 hours in a workweek in the last 3 years, the answer is “yes.”

First, the laws on overtime make it very easy for you to sue – even if the amount of your recovery is relatively small. 

First, you can go back for 3 years.      

Second, the law requires your employer to keep accurate records about your work.  If you employer did not keep accurate records, your own record or recollection may be used to calculate your overtime.

Third, you will normally receive double the amount of your overtime claim.

Lastly, you pay nothing.  The law requires the employer to pay your costs and attorney’s fees.

Illegal Deductions Violate Minimum Wage Law

The U.S. Labor Department says Windy City Doc Holding LLC, which owns the Metro Diner's franchises in Jacksonville Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach, made illegal deductions from workers’ pay when it charged servers for their uniforms, which resulted in them earning less than the legally required federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in the weeks that they paid for those items. The practice of sharing the tips of tipped employees at the beaches restaurant with non-tipped workers, such as dishwashers, also contributed to the minimum wage violations for affected servers. The restaurant also calculated overtime incorrectly when it based servers’ overtime rates on time and a half of their direct cash wages, rather than basing it on the full minimum wage, as required. According to Daniel White, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Jacksonville : “Restaurant workers are among the most vulnerable that we see,” “Violations such as those found in this case are all too common. When these workers aren’t paid every penny they have rightfully earned, it harms not just the workers, but their families, and their communities. We will continue our enforcement in this industry, along with our education and outreach activities, to ensure that workers are paid what they’ve earned, and to level the playing field for employers who play by the rules.”