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.
- 1Stopping unpaid overtime and working strictly 40 hours
- 2Consulting an employment lawyer or local department of labor
- 3Filing a wage claim with the state
- 4Looking for a new job
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, 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
- 2Manager changing my timesheet to add unpaid lunch breaks
- 2Why am I penalized for working during planning periods?
- 3Getting disciplined at work for missing billable hours targets
- 6How do I dispute a bunch of incorrect charges at once?
- 21Doing higher-level work without a pay raise
- 3Why do teachers have to do unpaid after school dismissal duty?