Can my employer deny overtime just because of my job title?
Under labor laws, job titles do not determine overtime eligibility; actual day-to-day duties dictate whether a worker qualifies for an exemption. Employers often wrongly deny overtime pay based solely on title and salary, leaving employees uncertain about how to claim unpaid wages without risking their current employment.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Stopping unpaid overtime and working strictly 40 hoursDid this help you?
- 2Consulting an employment lawyer or local department of laborDid this help you?
- 3Filing a wage claim with the stateDid this help you?
- 4Looking for a new jobDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“According to the department of labor my title doesn’t mean anything and I should get overtime pay for all the hours over 40 hours a week.”source ↗
“My manager and HR say I do not qualify because of my title and pay. Has anyone had to deal with this before?”source ↗
“I dealt with this before. Work your 40 and go home and spend that extra 15 hours looking for a job that respects your time.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 6Should I log my actual hours worked or underreport them?
- 2Manager changing my timesheet to add unpaid lunch breaks
- 17How to survive year-round mandatory overtime in public accounting
- 2Why am I penalized for working during planning periods?
- 6Getting disciplined at work for missing billable hours targets
- 11How do I dispute a bunch of incorrect charges at once?