There are several quick tips you should follow if you are not being paid for all of your work. Obviously, you should immediately contact a wage and hour attorney even if you are not planning to file a lawsuit yet, and they will give you some best practices. If you can’t meet with an attorney yet, you may want to do the following to help protect yourself:
- Record all of your hours. For example, take a picture with your cell phone when you arrive at work and when you leave. These will be time stamped by your phone and can help show you were there.
- Keep track on your calendar when you are at work and how many hours your worked each week. Mark when you leave for lunch and come back, or if you didn’t take a lunch, note that too. This way you can show in court that the other side is lying if they claim you took lunch for 2 hours a day when you only went for one hour.
- Get contact information for your coworkers, especially if it is happening to them as well. People quit and then you can’t find them. This is important as your coworker would likely corroborate your version of events.
- Keep your pay stubs and phone records so that your lawyer can go ahead and begin calculations for settlement purposes without being dependent on discovery from the other side.
- AND AGAIN contact an attorney!
Not being paid for time worked? Contact us to set up an appointment at (615) 620-5848.