My boss isn't paying me overtime. What can I do?

Answered by ProctorLaw

This is general legal information, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created. Talk with a licensed attorney about your situation.

Short answer: being paid a salary does not, by itself, make you exempt from overtime. That is the most common misunderstanding in wage law, and employers rely on it. Under both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Ohio law (R.C. 4111.03), an employer must pay time-and-a-half for hours over 40 in a workweek unless the employee fits a specific exemption, and the exemptions depend on what you actually do all day, not on how your pay is labeled. If your work is mostly hourly-type tasks and you supervise no one, there is a good chance you are owed overtime.

The two-part test for the "white collar" exemptions. To be exempt as an executive, administrative, or professional employee, you must (1) be paid on a salary basis of at least $684 per week ($35,568 a year), and (2) pass a duties test. The salary threshold is the 2019 figure; a 2024 rule that would have raised it was struck down by a federal court, and in May 2026 the Department of Labor formally restored the 2019 numbers. The duties tests, in plain terms:

Executive: your primary duty is managing, you regularly direct at least two full-time employees, and you have real input into hiring and firing.

Administrative: office or non-manual work directly related to running the business (not producing its product), and you exercise discretion and independent judgment on significant matters.

Professional: work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, usually acquired through a degree (nurses, engineers, accountants, and the like).

A salary above $684 a week plus a job that is really production, customer service, clerical, technician, or similar work usually fails the duties test. A salary below $684 a week fails on the first prong no matter what the job is.

What you would be owed. For a salaried non-exempt employee, the overtime rate is based on your regular rate: weekly salary divided by the hours that salary is meant to cover (29 C.F.R. 778.113). If a $900 weekly salary is for a 40-hour week, the regular rate is $22.50 and each hour over 40 is owed at $33.75. Employers sometimes argue the salary covers all hours worked under the "fluctuating workweek" method, which only requires a half-time premium, but that method requires a clear mutual understanding and hours that actually fluctuate (29 C.F.R. 778.114). You can recover unpaid overtime going back two years (three if the violation was willful) under federal law (29 U.S.C. 255), and two years under Ohio law (R.C. 2305.11(A)), plus an equal amount as liquidated damages and your attorney fees (29 U.S.C. 216(b); R.C. 4111.10). At 10 extra hours a week, that adds up quickly.

How to find out, step by step.

1. Start your own time log today: start time, end time, breaks, every day. Employers are required to keep accurate hour records (29 C.F.R. Part 516), and when they do not, courts accept the employee's reasonable reconstruction.

2. Request your pay and hours records in writing. Ohio requires an employer to provide them within 30 business days (R.C. 4111.14(G)).

3. Write down your actual duties in a typical week, and who you report to. This is what decides the exemption.

4. Pick a route. You can file a confidential complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (1-866-487-9243; its Columbus District Office is 614-469- 5678), file with the Ohio Department of Commerce Bureau of Wage and Hour (614- 644-2239), or talk to a wage-and-hour attorney about a private claim, which is often the better path for a misclassification dispute because the state bureau may decline cases where the employer claims an exemption. If coworkers are in the same boat, a group claim is possible, though in Ohio each person has to opt in (R.C. 4111.10(C)).

Retaliation is illegal. Firing, cutting hours, or demoting you for asking about overtime or filing a complaint violates both federal and Ohio law (29 U.S.C. 215(a)(3); R.C. 4111.13), and it creates a separate claim.

This is general information, not legal advice. Most wage-and-hour attorneys will review your duties and pay in a free consultation and take strong cases on contingency, since the law makes the employer pay the fees.

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