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Unpaid Overtime Battle Tomorrow, Please Send Help

Hi all, first post here, on mobile, thank you. TL;DR – I’ll be discussing my (and possibly others’) unpaid overtime wages tomorrow with the owner and would appreciate any advice, thank you. And for those who like the long form: I’ve (24m) been working at a small restaurant since June 2021. It’s the first food service job that I’ve had, and for the most part it was pretty great. But a few months in, I noticed they weren’t paying any overtime. I’m sure a fair few (or many) of you are already familiar with the tale, but essentially they don’t count split shifts as deserving of overtime, regardless of if the combined hours surpass 8 in a day. Honestly I wasn’t sure how to breach the subject, so I began by asking a couple coworkers I trusted “Hey, do you get overtime on your split shifts?” The answer would not…


Hi all, first post here, on mobile, thank you.

TL;DR – I’ll be discussing my (and possibly others’) unpaid overtime wages tomorrow with the owner and would appreciate any advice, thank you.

And for those who like the long form:

I’ve (24m) been working at a small restaurant since June 2021. It’s the first food service job that I’ve had, and for the most part it was pretty great.

But a few months in, I noticed they weren’t paying any overtime. I’m sure a fair few (or many) of you are already familiar with the tale, but essentially they don’t count split shifts as deserving of overtime, regardless of if the combined hours surpass 8 in a day.

Honestly I wasn’t sure how to breach the subject, so I began by asking a couple coworkers I trusted “Hey, do you get overtime on your split shifts?” The answer would not only be a resounding (and crestfallen) “No”, but they’d all go on to explain how when they saw other coworkers trying to discuss this with the owner, rather than pay the employee in question, the result would be to take said employee off the offending shifts without consent. They employ several high-schoolers and people who wouldn’t know better, I suppose is how they’ve gotten away with it for so long. This, of course, frightened me, as I had built my free time around the schedule they gave me and couldn’t change it without disrupting several others’ schedules.

So I began searching for a new job.

Now I’ve found one, loads better (yay!) and I’ve put my two weeks in at the restaurant. I’ve asked one of the managers “Hey, will I be receiving my OT pay in my last check?”, to which they responded “I don’t know what OT pay you would have, you’ll have to talk to the owner about that.” My initial plan was to go all scorched earth and threaten calling a labor board and having an audience cheer me out as angels sung of my victory, but the situation is a bit more complicated than that. Also I don’t know where to source the angels from.

Firstly, the owner is a very stubborn, staunch conservative. Which explains the policies, sure, but also lends a fair hand to unnerving me about the whole situation. They have a reputation amongst the rest of the staff for turning them right around on any issue brought to their face. I’m no quitter, but believe me I’m a little terrified of going face-to-face with them.

Second, this restaurant hires a decent number of illegal folk. I don’t want to hurt them: they’re just doing their best to support themselves and their families in whatever way they can. Although I know for a fact they were hired to be taken advantage of (through pay, etc, though I have no concrete proof), I don’t want them to lose their jobs over my issues.

Now I’ve been made to understand that the area I live in is designated as a “sanctuary area”. Essentially, if somebody happens across evidence of illegal immigration while not explicitly looking for it, they aren’t supposed to report it to authorities. Or so I’m made to understand. This eases my concern, but I’m still worried. It’s a hobby.

Now the questions I’ve been wandering up to this whole time:
1: Is there anything I should know about negotiating my OT pay to make the process smooth?
2: Should I even do this at all if there’s a risk of hurting someone else?
3: Is there a way to ensure (or try to ensure) that my fellow employees get their OT pay as well? Or would that be something they’d have to go through a similar fight for on their own?

In closing, thank you all so much for reading, and thank you all so much for any advice you may have on this issue. I’ll be at my other (better) job today, so it may take some time to respond to anything.

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