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Working Overtime: Should You Put it Down on Your Timesheet?

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"2. If she is nonexempt, and works 40 or fewer hours in a workweek, the only FLSA requirement is that her total pay be at least as much as the minimum wage law would require...."
That may be for a new hire paid at minimum wage, but if the hourly wage is higher, the employer can't stiff them out of the difference between the minimum wage and the contracted wage.
An employer can get in trouble. I took a case first to the state labor board, and they gave me the brushoff...I suppose because they were overloaded with complaints; but I had a well documented case, and the federal labor board took it up. The agent was very naive, and the office's prettiest manager led him around by the nose for several months, but he finally got the picture and made the regional manager of the company make out a check for me while he watched. In the meantime the local office panicked and made me a check also, so I was double paid. Ha, ha. The labor board agent asked me if I was satisfied, and I said that while I got my money, many older employees had been shorted but weren't inclined to make waves (very, very few do, I have found, despite big talk), so the labor board made the company hire three full time accountants to go over payroll records for several years. Having made myself unpopular, the company called me up one morning at 8AM and asked me out of the blue to to take a lie detector test 40 miles away at 10 AM. Instead I filed for unemployment, and the company didn't contest it, apparently having had enough of me.
Another employer coughed up when I let it be known through channels that I had visited small claims court and ascertained that I could file suit for wages there. The labor board required so much prodding I didn't want to go through that again.

Luther of IL 1:33AM February 13, 2009

Jeff, you are right, it is the employer's responsibility. However, in practical terms it is the employees' responsibility to submit accurate time cards. Any reputable business will--and should--terminate someone who submits falsified time cards.

Suzanne Lucas of PA 3:48PM February 12, 2009

1. The employee is not "breaking the law" if she fails to record all the time she works. The FLSA contains no requirement that employees record all time worked. The FLSA record keeping requirements apply to employers, not employees.
2. If she is nonexempt, and works 40 or fewer hours in a workweek, the only FLSA requirement is that her total pay be at least as much as the minimum wage law would require (i.e., total hours worked times the minimum wage amount).
3. It is unlikely that an employer would face "huge fines" just because employees failed to record all time worked. Employers usually get into FLSA troubles when they fail to pay either (a) minimum wages or (b) required overtime compensation. This typically results in fines only if (a) the Department of Labor becomes involved (statistically unlikely) and (b) record keeping violations contributed substantially to wage underpayments (or were deliberate attempts to skirt FLSA requirements).

Jeff Chamberlain of NY 2:11PM February 12, 2009