Getting the Overtime You Deserve

When an employer fails to pay you the money you’re due, you do have options. It may not seem like this is always the case, but there are ways that you can seek compensation for wages that you have not been paid when you did work those hours. One of the most common ways that people are denied wages is when an employer fails to pay them the full overtime rates that they are owed. This is easy for employers to do when employees don’t pay close enough attention to their paychecks and, for that reason, this is a rather common scam among unethical employers.

What Should You Do?

In the best case scenarios, the employer simply made an error in their payroll and will be willing to make up the difference on your next check or by cutting you an extra check. This is what ethical employers do once they discover there has been an error and, of course, people do sometimes make innocent mistakes with money. There are employers, however, who may try to get out of paying the money they owe you in various ways.

Threats

An employer who is so inclined has a tremendous ability to intimidate employees. After all, employees are depending upon their checks and losing your job is a very difficult thing to deal with. This may give employers the idea that they can push employees around by making it overly difficult for them to get compensated for the overtime that they’re due. If you don’t have anyone in your corner, it is unfortunately very easy for employers to get away with this.

Slow Walking

Some employers will try to avoid paying the overtime by claiming that they didn’t remember to pay it over and over again. While they’re withholding on paying their bills, of course, their employees still have their own bills coming in and may not be able to pay them because of being shorted on their checks. There is no reason that an employee has to put up with this.

Contact a Lawyer

An unpaid overtime lawyer can help employees with these situations, no matter how big or powerful their employer may be. Whether it’s a multi-national oil company or a local hardware store, these attorneys can go after the employers and make sure that they pay their employees the money that the employees are due. Talk to an attorney if you’re not being paid wages you’re due.