El Paso Failure to Pay Overtime Wages Lawyer

With Law Offices in El Paso

When you commit your time and energy to performing a job, your employer is required to pay you the agreed upon wage for the work that you do. Federal law states that employers are required to pay non-exempt, hourly employees at an overtime rate— usually “time-and-a-half,” or 150% of the regular hourly rate, for any hours worked beyond the 40-hour week. If your employer is not adhering to this law and you are not being paid overtime, you may be entitled to compensation.

If you’re reading this, your employer may not be paying you the overtime wages you are entitled to. You may be struggling financially as a result of not being properly compensated. You may be worried that your boss will fire you if you speak up. You’re probably looking for someone to help you with a failure to pay overtime wages claim.

We are here to help. Our firm offers free legal consultations. Call our El Paso failure to pay overtime wages lawyer today to schedule your free legal consultation.

The information on this page will help you understand your failure to pay overtime wages claim. First, we’ll share mistakes to avoid that can ruin your claim. Next, we’ll use a client story to illustrate additional important aspects of your failure to pay overtime wages claim. Be sure to read to the end to learn as much about your claim as possible.

Common Failure to Pay Overtime Wages Claim Mistakes

Unfortunately, there are a number of ways people harm their failure to pay overtime wages claims. Please review the mistakes listed below to prevent yourself from doing the same.

Not Keeping Your Own Record of Your Work Hours

In order to file a claim or bring a suit, you will need to prove that your employer is not meeting their obligation to pay you premium rates for hours worked beyond 40 per week. There are several forms this proof can take including:

Employee notes: It’s always a good practice to maintain your own copy of your timesheets Whether or not your employer requests that you keep a written or electronic timesheet. Doing so will help provide proof of hours worked if your employer “misplaces” timecards or you discover your employer is not meeting their obligation to provide pay stubs.

Witness testimony: Co-workers can provide testimony to support your presence at a work site or place of employment during a particular shift.

Video footage: If your employer uses video surveillance on company property, it may be helpful in proving your presence on the job.

Job logs: Your job may require that you maintain a project log or a log of phone calls for the purposes of billing clients for the hours you worked on each project.  The log of your hours can also be used to support the hours you worked for the employer. Emails can also help to prove when you were working.

Computer data: If your computer requires that you log in and out for each work session, this information may provide evidence of hours worked.

 Each of these methods can help support your overtime claim. The more of them you can provide as evidence for hours worked, the stronger your claim will be. Consistently maintaining your own copy of hours worked will ensure that you have at least that much to proof support your claim.

Make your records as detailed as possible. Noting when you took lunch or other breaks, for example, will add to the credibility of your records. If you work among a team of people, making a quick note of who was there each day will enable you to know who to approach if you need witness testimony later. A simple list of initials will do if you’re in a hurry.

In addition, brief notes as to what you did during each block of time will help illustrate that you filled it out in real time rather than making up a stack at the end of a week with only your hours noted but no record of what was done.

Failure to Address the Issue with Management

The imbalance of power that goes with being an employee often causes hesitancy in addressing pay discrepancies. Worry over being fired can cause a person to remain silent and just hope the employer will correct the problem. The problem with this approach is that it takes a toll on the employee’s stress level and can lead to resentment over time.

Please remember that you have rights under federal employment law. If your employer is not honoring their wage responsibilities, you owe it to yourself to seek compensation through an employment claim.

If you are too fearful of negative repercussions to speak to your employer, or if you bring the issue up but your employer fails to rectify the problem, our Texas failure to pay overtime wages lawyer can guide you in pursuing a claim.

Asking Loved Ones and Friends for Advice

It’s understandable to want to share your stress over a problem at work with those close to you. It’s important, however, not to seek legal advice from anyone but an experienced employment lawyer. Your loved ones most likely lack the expertise to advise you on how best to proceed. They may also lack objectivity.

Your spouse’s anger at how you’re being taken advantage of, for example, is not going to be helpful when addressing your employer. The right lawyer will be able to leverage the law— not anger— to remedy your pay issue. Resorting to threats or drama will almost certainly backfire.

Pursuing a Solution Without an Attorney

Employment law is not simple. If you are getting the “runaround” from your employer when you try to discuss the problem, you need someone in your corner who can help. Your Texas failure to pay overtime wages lawyer will help you address the issue with your employer as effectively as possible and report the problem to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), to ensure your rights are protected.

Hiring the Wrong Employment Attorney

It’s sad that many people mistakenly believe that any lawyer is as good as any other for helping to pursue unpaid overtime. Just like in the medical field, however, the law profession includes many practice areas in which a lawyer can specialize.

To pursue unpaid wages, hire a trial attorney with expertise in employment law. Many claims are resolved via negotiation, but if yours ends up in court, you need to know your lawyer is ready to win.

El Paso Failure to Pay Overtime Wages Client Story

We are sharing the story below to give you additional background on failure to pay overtime wages cases. Be sure to read to the end. The names and details have been changed to protect our client’s privacy, but the value of the information remains.

On a warm Friday evening in late August, Alexandra Desoto arrived at her El Paso home after a long day. She was looking forward to “Date Night” with her husband, Marco. Though their bi-weekly “dates” were a lot more mundane than in the days before they had children, they were still a much-needed break without the kids for a few hours.

Their first stop was always dinner. The second was a trek through the grocery store to stock up on food and supplies. With two grade-schoolers and a teen, there was always something they were in dire need of by payday.

They left the smaller children in the care of their 14-year-old sister and headed to the restaurant. Though they were mindful of their budget, payday meant they could at least go somewhere that had an actual wait server to dote on them. They laughed and caught up on everything they hadn’t had time to talk about when the kids were interrupting every sentence at home.

Afterward, Alexandra pulled the “magic clipboard” from the back seat as Marco navigated to the grocery store.

Alexandrea prided herself on being organized. Marco grabbed a cart as she reviewed the custom shopping list they always took to the store, whose columns reflected the order of the store aisles.

“You know, Alex, I’ve come to appreciate your ‘geeking out’ on these lists you create,” Marco said, looking over her shoulder. His wife’s grocery list even had the aisle numbers beside every category. It always ended up saving time and stress; especially when Marco stopped at the store alone on his way home from work.

“You make your own lists at work, too?” Marco asked.

“Yes, I do,” Alexandra said with pride. “I have paper timesheets for my time card, and project sheets that allow me to keep track of how much time I spend on various projects. I also keep my own version of a ‘call log,’ so I can quickly remind myself where a conversation with a vendor and I left off.”

“You know, you can do all that electronically, right, Alex?” Marco teased, though he knew what his wife’s answer would be.

“Yes, and I do, but so many times, I’m too busy to remember to log into another program, even to track things. I forget to hit the button. Once you forget, the end of the day comes and it’s too late to recall all you’ve been doing,” said Alexandra. “I know it sounds counterintuitive, but it’s much easier for me to keep the timesheets on the clipboard at my elbow and jot down what I’m doing whenever I switch tasks.

“Some days I have dozens of windows open on my computer screen,” Alexandra said. “I just can’t handle opening one more application.

“I guess it’s sort of like how our email inboxes are so jammed these days. Even if a bill is paid electronically, I have them send me a paper statement, because I know it won’t get overlooked in the snail mailbox.” She looked at Marco, to see if he understood what she was trying to say.

“Yeah, I definitely have more flooding my email box than the snail mail box these days. You’ve got to do whatever works for you,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

Saturdays were for reviewing the bills and the budget. On date nights, Alexandra would just check the bank account before they left on their date, to confirm her pay was in there. This particular evening, however, she’d arrived home so late they’d just left. After all, they reasoned, surely the company would honor the overtime Alexandra had worked.

As the couple went through checkout, they estimated that their groceries would be a higher than usual since they’d had to pick up all the items on their children’s “back to school” supply lists.

Alexandra had only that year been able to return to full-time work. Their budget was still finely balanced and would be for a while. They were extremely careful to make sure they didn’t have to pay for groceries on the credit card.

“It’s a good thing you worked those extra hours,” Marco said to his wife. “It will really help with this.”

“Yes, I really don’t want to make a habit of ten-hour days, but with these new projects, we weren’t really given a choice.”

The next morning, however, Marco and Alexandra were shocked to find their bank account was lower than expected. Factoring the upcoming car payment and utility bill, they were headed for a negative balance before Marco’s check the following week.

“You submitted the overtime hours two weeks ago, right?” Marco asked as they blinked at the bank screen.

“Yes, we still submit those paper timecards, but I made a note in the margin to remind Mr. Sauer of the overtime worked. I can’t believe it. This check doesn’t reflect anything beyond 40 hours of regular pay!”

The couple had to borrow from their overdraft line of credit to keep the bank account positive until Marco’s next pay check. Alexandra considered speaking to the boss about her hours, but she was worried about making waves.

She’d been on the job less than a year and in the early days, there had been problems getting the automated system to kick in to deposit her pay. She’d been terribly embarrassed to have to ask about it back then. It had taken six weeks for her to start receiving regular pay.

Though she had very little communication with her direct supervisor, the unspoken understanding was that she’d get her work done, period. Being relatively new, she was worried that bringing up the overtime issue may cause her boss to accuse her of not working fast enough and decide she wasn’t worth the pay. She worried about being fired.

After expressing her concerns to Marco, he agreed to wait and see if perhaps her overtime would kick through with the next paycheck. Maybe they had misunderstood and there was a delay for some reason. Surely a big company wouldn’t withhold what was to them such a small amount from her on purpose?

Whatever the cause, however, the decision to “wait and see” made them both anxious. That “relatively small amount” was key to the family budget.

The next two weeks went much the same way, with Alexandra working an average of ten hours a day, including a half-hour unpaid lunch that she often worked through. Marco became increasingly frustrated, telling his wife she was being taken advantage of.

As the days passed, Alexandra’s stress went through the roof. The work kept coming and she was forced to continue working through lunch and at least an hour beyond closing every day just to keep up. She continued to keep careful records of each days’ total hours, as well as the amount of time she spent per client.

The day before her next paycheck, the automatic cell phone bill payment triggered the overdraft protection, setting off a snowball of fees until they were forced to move another lump sum from the overdraft account into the checking account.

The lack of communication from management made Alexandra’s stress worse. She worried about someone calling her in to tell her she wasn’t working up to the speed of the rest of the team. She kept her head down and continued to do her best.

Were her co-workers having the same problem, she wondered? She had no way of knowing, as company regulations prohibited talk about pay. And in the absence of information, people often make up their own stories. Alexandra was stricken with chronic job insecurity.

By the time the next paycheck arrived, the Desotos’ budget was spiraling. She’d been unable to sleep the night before, and logged into their online bank account at midnight, desperately hoping for the financial correction in addition to the most recent pay cycle’s overtime pay.

Once more, however, not only was there no time-and-a-half, there was no overtime, period. Once again, just the regular wages for 40 hours per week.

At coffee that Friday morning, Marco calmly but firmly told his wife that she must speak to payroll. “We have to let the chips fall, Alex. The work was done and I’m sure done well. The company owes you compensation. If you don’t speak to payroll, I will.”

That day, Alexandra tried to find out what was going on with her paychecks, but all she got was double-speak. Her supervisor promised to “make a note,” not bothering to look up from his computer screen.

Then he asked if she’d finished the Dawson report. Two weeks later, it was the same old story. No pay beyond the regular 40 hours. That’s when Alexandra made an appointment with us for a free legal consultation.

Is it worth it to file a failure to pay overtime wages claim?

We met Alexandra and Marco in our offices and they explained the problem. Alexandra was clearly a bundle of nerves about “making trouble.”

Our attorney assured her that she had the right to ask for the pay she was owed without being harassed or intimidated.

“Minimally, they owe you back pay at the overtime rate, Alexandra. And very likely interest and penalties on top of that.”

What if they still don’t pay me, but still expect the work to get done?

It was clear that Alexandra was well beyond being stressed. “The only time I hear from my supervisor is when he calls to ask when my work will be done,” she said, exasperated.

“That’s where we come in,” said Attorney Chavez. “Our experienced employment law attorneys can intervene on your behalf to make sure the employer can’t ignore their obligation to pay you. They are going to have to communicate with you clearly to resolve the issue in a timely manner. They don’t get to pretend they don’t know you haven’t been paid.

“Have you been keeping your own records of your hours?” Asked Attorney Chavez.

“Oh, yes,” Alexandra said, as she pulled a stack of legal paper as thick as a deck of cards from her bag and set it on the attorney’s desk.

“These are my daily timesheets, showing when I started, when I took lunch, and when I left each day,” she said, then set a second, smaller stack beside it. “And these are my records of time spent per project. Makes it easier for me to enter it all into the project management software so we can bill the clients,” she explained.

“Excellent,” said Attorney Chavez. “It’s clear that you’re very organized, Alexandra. I bet you’re as conscientious with your assignments are you are with your record keeping.”

Alexandra blushed, but was pleased. “Doing a good job is extremely important to me,” she said. “I’ve always believed that if someone is paying you to do a job, they deserve to know what your time is spent on.”

“She’s a total over-achiever,” said Marco, beaming. “There’s no way she’s slacking at work. This company is either run by abysmal managers who are incapable of math and communication, or worse— they are withholding communication to avoid having to pay overtime.”

What if I get fired? Will I able to collect unemployment?

“What if they fire me, under some accusation that I’m not performing?” Alexandra asked, finally voicing her hidden fear.

“I doubt the company wants to let go of a valuable employee like you,” Attorney Chavez said. “The trick here is to get them to hold up their end of the deal.”

The lawyer went on to tell the couple that federal law provided protection from being terminated without cause. “You were smart to contact us, Alexandra. We will intervene and communicate with your employer on your behalf. We will also notify the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of the situation. Your employer is not allowed to come after you for exercising your rights under federal employment law.”

Alexandra and Marco were satisfied with the information they received in their free legal consultation and retained our firm. After an audit of her pay, additional instances of less blatant but insufficient overtime pay were discovered. Simply put, the numbers never quite added up to time-and-a-half for the overtime hours worked.

Alexandra was not only paid the overtime wages the employer owed her, but also awarded liquidated damages instead of interest. This means she was paid twice the unpaid wage amount. She was also awarded a “waiting time” penalty equal to 30 days of additional wages.

Call Our El Paso Failure to Pay Overtime Wages Lawyer Today

We hope this information page has given you a better understanding of your failure to pay overtime wages claim. Sine no two cases are the same, please give our El Paso failure to pay overtime wages lawyer a call as soon as you can to schedule your free legal consultation. You deserve to be properly compensated for the work you do. Call Chavez Law Firm today and let us help you fight for your rights.