Pursuing a Legal Claim for Unpaid Wages resulting from Off the Clock Work in the Healthcare Industry
In the healthcare industry, many dedicated employees, especially caregivers, are required to go above and beyond their scheduled hours to provide care to patients and support the functioning of medical facilities. The nature of your work simply does not allow you to stop working with a patient immediately when your shift is over or when it is time to take lunch.
Our lawyers at Frankel Syverson PLLC have helped numerous employees in the healthcare industry recover wages for work they are required to perform off the clock. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, most healthcare workers like caregivers are required to be paid the minimum wage and overtime at time and a half their regular rate of pay for hours worked over forty in a workweek. In addition, Arizona law requires that healthcare workers be timely paid all the wages they are due, including the minimum wage under Arizona law that is $13.85 as of 2023 and set to increase on January 1 of each year.
However, many healthcare workers, especially caregivers, are required to complete job duties when they are not clocked in. While employers often provide healthcare workers a lunch and deduct for that time, many healthcare employees report that they are often required to perform work duties during their lunch, completing tasks with patients, filling out paperwork, answering phones or pages, or completing other necessary tasks to preform their essential work. They also report having to complete similar tasks after the conclusion of their scheduled shift, but they don’t get paid for that time.
Federal and Arizona law requires employers to pay employees for all the time they work, including time worked off the clock. In fact, you don’t even necessarily need documentation to support the hours that you worked. If you complete job duties off the clock, your own memory about the amount of time you are required to work off the clock and the job tasks you performed off the clock should be sufficient evidence to support your claim.
If you believe you have worked off the clock, that could result in unpaid minimum wage and unpaid overtime under federal and Arizona law. You could be entitled to double or triple the amount of back wages you are owed. You are also likely eligible to have your attorneys’ fees and costs paid for by the offending employer, which is why our lawyers at Frankel Syverson PLLC typically take cases for unpaid wages due from off the clock work at no out of pocket cost to you.
Contact our office today to set up a free, confidential case evaluation with one of our lawyers to see if we may be able to represent you. We have decades of experience helping healthcare workers recover all the time they are owed for off the clock work.
