Unlawful employer practices:

• Time rounding: Manipulation of clock in/out systems to round down time worked by employees, thus artificially reducing the amount of time worked. E.g., 8:53 clock in rounded to 9:00, 5:08 clock out rounded to 5:00.
• Compensatory time: Time off offered to employees instead of paying them cash at the mandated time-and-a-half overtime rate in excess of 40 hours worked in a week.
• Automatic meal deductions: When a timekeeping system automatically deducts a meal period’s worth of time from an employee’s time worked, even if that employee was performing work duties during that time.
• Schedule-based pay: Payment to an employee based on a set schedule, which may amount to markedly less than the actual time worked.
• Requesting off the clock work: It is unlawful for an employer to ask an employee to perform work-related activities before or after a shift without compensation.

FAQ:

• How do I know if I’m eligible for relief under the FLSA?
  
  • To be eligible, one must be a non-exempt employee under the FLSA. There are a number of industry-specific exemption guidelines, but in general, employees who are paid hourly and do not perform exempt job duties are not exempt. For more information, please refer to this PDF file from the Department of Labor.
• Can my employer take action against me for participating in a lawsuit?
  
  • No. The FLSA states that it is a violation to “discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this Act, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, or has served or is about to serve on an industry committee.” This page on the FLSA website discusses retaliation.