Build your own dated record first, because the record-keeping obligation sits with the employer and a reasonable employee reconstruction carries real weight where their records are incomplete. Raise it in writing, since a large share of shortfalls are payroll errors that get corrected once documented. Then file with your state labor agency or the federal Wage and Hour Division — free, no lawyer required — before the limitation period expires, which is what most often decides the outcome.
Build the record first
Before raising anything, write down what actually happened by date: hours worked each day, pay received each period, and the rate you believe was owed. Start today and keep going, because the value of such a record is entirely in its having been made as events occurred rather than assembled afterwards from memory and guesswork. Six months later you will not remember which Tuesday ran long, and a record made at the time will.
The legal reason this matters is that the obligation to keep accurate records sits with the employer, not with you. Where their records are missing or incomplete — which is common, particularly for anybody treated as exempt who never clocked in — a reasonable and consistent reconstruction by the employee can carry real weight rather than being dismissed for lack of documentation. The gap in the records is the employer’s problem, not yours.
Gather the corroborating material while you still can. Building access logs, system login and logout times, sent-message timestamps, calendar entries, delivery schedules, photographs with metadata. None of it was created to prove hours, which is exactly what makes it persuasive, and access to most of it ends the day you leave.
Work out the figure
Establish what you are actually owed before you raise it, because a number changes a conversation that a feeling does not. Take one pay period, add everything paid, divide by the hours you actually worked including the ones nobody recorded, and compare that to the rate that should have applied for those hours. Use whichever rule governs where you work rather than the federal one, since it is higher almost everywhere.
Then multiply it out. A $12 weekly shortfall is $624 a year and potentially double that with liquidated damages, which is a different proposition from the $12 it feels like each Friday. That arithmetic is also what tells you whether pursuing it is worth your time, which is a legitimate question with a real answer either way.
Raise it internally, in writing
A large share of these are genuine errors rather than decisions — a rate never updated after a local increase, an automatic meal deduction, hours recorded to the wrong week, a raise applied from the wrong date. All of them get fixed once somebody is pointed at a specific period with a specific figure attached. That is something a payroll team can act on immediately, which is why specific beats general every time here.
So the first move is a short factual message rather than a complaint. Name the pay period, the hours, the amount received, the rate you believe applies, and ask for it to be checked. That reads as a request for a review rather than an accusation, and it gives an employer a route to fixing something without anybody having to be wrong in public.
Send it in writing even if you also raise it verbally, and keep a copy somewhere that is not a company system. The written version fixes the date you raised it, which matters if anything happens afterwards, and it survives the person you sent it to leaving, which in a troubled workplace is not a remote possibility. It is a fairly likely one, and it is the reason to send the message rather than only have the conversation.
Choose where to file
If the internal route fails, two options exist. Your state labor agency handles state wage claims and is usually the better first stop, for two practical reasons: state minimums and protections exceed the federal ones almost everywhere, so the claim is larger, and state processes tend to move faster than federal ones. The difference is sometimes many months, which matters when a limitation period is running.
The federal Wage and Hour Division handles claims under federal law and is the route where no state provision applies. In the five states with no minimum wage statute of their own, it is effectively the only option available to you. Those five states are Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Filing is free through either route, requires no lawyer, and the forms are short. What you will need is the employer’s name and address, your dates of employment, your rate, and your own record of hours and pay — which is why the record comes first. Most states accept claims from former employees on the same terms as current ones.
One thing worth knowing before choosing: the Department of Labor no longer seeks liquidated damages in pre-litigation settlements, so the administrative route and a court claim no longer recover the same amounts. Where the sum is significant, that difference is worth asking an employment lawyer about before committing to a path you cannot easily reverse once started. An hour of advice at that point is worth more than at any later stage.
The deadline is what kills claims
This is the part to act on today rather than eventually. Wage claims carry limitation periods — commonly two years under federal law, extended to three where a violation is found willful, with state periods varying and sometimes longer. Every week that passes, the oldest week of your claim drops off the end.
The pattern that costs people money is entirely predictable and almost universal. Somebody notices a shortfall, decides to see whether it corrects itself, waits through two more pay periods, raises it informally, waits for a response, and by the time they file, a meaningful portion of what was recoverable has expired. Nobody in that sequence behaved unreasonably, and the calendar did not care.
So find out the limitation period that applies where you are before deciding what to do about anything. Knowing you have two years changes how patient you can afford to be with an internal process; discovering you had two years, eighteen months ago, changes nothing that can be fixed by then. The merits of the claim become irrelevant the moment the period expires.
Retaliation is a separate claim
Retaliation for raising a wage complaint is prohibited under federal law and under state wage statutes, and the protection covers complaints made to your employer as well as to an agency. It generally covers participating in somebody else’s claim too, which matters where a whole crew is affected by the same configuration error rather than by a decision anybody took about you personally. That is worth remembering when deciding whether raising it feels adversarial.
Because it is a separate claim with its own — often shorter — deadline, treat it as its own record. Note the date you raised the pay issue and note anything that changes afterwards: hours cut, shifts moved, assignments withdrawn, a sudden performance conversation, exclusion from something you were part of before. Dates, not impressions.
That record turns an impression into something an agency or a lawyer can evaluate. Without dates, a retaliation claim is a feeling about a sequence of events; with them it becomes a timeline somebody can actually assess. An agency or a lawyer can work with a timeline and can do very little with a general sense that things got worse.
What you can recover
The unpaid wages themselves, and in many cases an equal additional amount as liquidated damages, which effectively doubles the recovery. Several states add interest, civil penalties or attorney’s fees, and a few provide multiples greater than double the unpaid amount. That changes the calculation considerably on a claim that looked marginal on the wages alone.
That is why employers settle wage claims that look small on their face — the exposure is rarely what the arithmetic first suggests, particularly where the same error applies to a group. It is also why running the annual figure before deciding whether to pursue anything matters so much. The weekly figure understates it and the annual figure is the honest one.
This is general information about how the process works rather than legal advice about your situation. Limitation periods, recovery rules and agency procedures all vary by state, so your state labor agency is the place to confirm the specifics — and they will answer a question without any obligation to file anything, which makes asking early cost nothing at all.
Common questions
What should I do first?
Build your own dated record of hours worked and pay received. The record-keeping obligation sits with the employer, and where their records are incomplete a reasonable contemporaneous employee reconstruction carries real weight.
What corroborating evidence helps?
Building access logs, system logins, message timestamps, calendar entries, delivery schedules. None was created to prove hours, which is what makes it persuasive — and access usually ends the day you leave.
Should I raise it internally first?
Usually yes. Many shortfalls are errors — a rate never updated, an automatic meal deduction, hours in the wrong week — and they get fixed once somebody sees a specific period and figure.
Where do I file?
Your state labor agency is usually the better first stop, since state protections exceed federal ones almost everywhere and processes move faster. The federal Wage and Hour Division handles federal claims.
Do I need a lawyer?
No. Filing is free through either route and the forms are short. You need the employer's details, your dates of employment, your rate and your own record of hours and pay.
Does the route affect what I recover?
Yes. The Department of Labor no longer seeks liquidated damages in pre-litigation settlements, so the administrative and court routes no longer recover the same amounts.
Why do valid claims fail?
The deadline. Commonly two years federally, three for willful violations, with state periods varying. Every week of waiting drops the oldest week off the end of the claim.
Am I protected if I complain?
Yes, including for internal complaints and for participating in somebody else's claim. Retaliation is a separate claim with its own, often shorter, deadline — so record dates from the moment you raise anything.