​Misclassification as Independent Contractor​: The right to receive overtime wages at time and a half your regular rate of pay is reserved for employees. Independent contractors are not entitled to overtime premiums because they are presumed to have full control over their own schedules and earnings. Therefore a common strategy used by employers to avoid paying overtime wages is to label employees as independent contractors even through they are truly employees. Whether somebody is an employee or a true independent contractor is a legal question that depends on multiple factors. Click here to learn more about misclassification. 

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• Have you ever been paid with a 1099 while feeling your employer exercised control over your schedule, wages, and other terms and conditions of employment?

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• Do you work for a staffing agency that poses as a gig platform connecting you to a company offering work, yet you are treated as an independent contractor?

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Nonpayment of Travel Time or Driving Time: Employers in a range of industries, like construction and cleaning, often require a crew member to pick up or drive other crew members as a condition of employment, yet they do not pay them for all the time they spend driving. This uncompensated time often results in overtime violations because it would have brought the workers' hours above 40 per week. Further, crew members are often required to perform work before traveling to their first work site or after they return to the yard, but are not paid for all of the time they spend traveling each day after they commence and before they stop working.

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• If you are required to drive crew members or materials as part of your work, are you paid for all time you spent Driving?

• If you are required to travel to different work sites throughout the day, are you paid for all the time  you spend traveling in between sites?

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Off the Clock Work: Another common scheme to avoid paying overtime wages is requiring employees to perform work "off the clock" and without compensation. Such uncompensated work would often have brought employees' work hours 40 in a work week and should have been compensated at an overtime rate. 

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• Does your employer require you to show up early for work to perform preparatory work "off the clock," but does not pay you until you clock in?

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Cash Paid at Regular Rate for Hours over 40: One of the oldest tricks in the book to avoid paying overtime wages is for employers to pay for hours worked at or under 40 per week via paycheck or direct deposit "on the books," while paying for hours worked over 40 per week in cash "off the books," at the employees' regular rate of pay.

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• Have you ever received cash payments for hours worked over 40 per week?

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Miscalculation of Overtime Rate of Pay: Employers often simply fail to calculate overtime rates of pay correctly.

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• Are you a piece rate worker that believes they are not being compensated for overtime work correctly? 

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