Am I Owed Unpaid Overtime?

When You Are Legally Owed Overtime

In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires non-exempt employees to be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Many states go further: California, for instance, requires daily overtime after 8 hours and double time after 12, and several states set their own thresholds. The federal minimum is a floor — where a state rule is more generous, the state rule applies.

In Canada, overtime is governed by provincial (or federal, for federally regulated sectors) employment standards. The premium is generally 1.5 times the regular rate, but the threshold varies: Ontario and several provinces use 44 hours per week, while others use 40. Some provinces also regulate averaging agreements and banked time. As in the US, the entitlement depends on your actual hours and your legal classification, not on how the employer labels you.

The Two Biggest Traps: Exempt and Contractor Misclassification

The most common reason workers are denied overtime is misclassification. Being paid a salary does not make you exempt. Under the FLSA, an employee is exempt only if they meet both a salary-basis and salary-level test and a duties test — genuinely performing executive, administrative, or professional work. A salaried worker doing largely routine or non-managerial tasks is often misclassified and owed substantial back overtime. Canadian standards similarly exempt only defined categories, such as true managers and certain regulated professionals, and a job title like 'assistant manager' does not by itself remove overtime rights.

The second trap is the independent-contractor label. Employers sometimes classify workers as contractors to avoid overtime, minimum wage, and other obligations. Agencies and courts disregard the label and examine the real relationship — the degree of control, whether the worker is integrated into the business, and economic dependence. A worker found to be a misclassified employee can recover the overtime and other entitlements that were withheld, sometimes for years.

How Far Back You Can Claim — and Why Speed Matters

Overtime claims have limited look-back periods, and they run continuously, so delay costs money. Under the FLSA, you can generally recover unpaid overtime for the previous 2 years, extended to 3 years for willful violations, and you may be entitled to an equal amount again as 'liquidated' (double) damages. State wage laws sometimes allow longer recovery. Canadian employment-standards claims also have look-back limits that vary by province, though a civil claim for unpaid wages may reach back further.

Off-the-clock work counts toward these totals: pre-shift setup, post-shift duties, working through automatically deducted meal breaks, and after-hours email or calls are all compensable when the employer knew or should have known about them. 'Comp time' generally cannot replace overtime pay in the US private sector. Because each week that passes can drop off the back end of the recoverable period, and because retaliation for a wage complaint is separately unlawful, it is worth getting a prompt review of your classification and hours.

Related: Employment Law Wizards · Unpaid Wages & Overtime Claim · Final Paycheck & Wage Claim · Was I Retaliated Against at Work? · Employment Law Wizards · All Legal Wizards