Your rights at work

Most U.S. labour protections apply to everyone who works, including undocumented workers. Employers who prey on new arrivals rely on the opposite belief.

Federal minimum

$7.25 an hour — many states and cities are far higher

Overtime

1.5× beyond 40 hours in a week

Status

Wage and safety law applies regardless of it

Deadlines

Some as short as 180 days — act early

What you are entitled to

Minimum wage. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour and has not changed since 2009. It is a floor, not a going rate: many states and cities set a considerably higher one, and the highest applicable rate wins. Some cities require more than double the federal figure. Check your state and your city, not just the federal number.

Overtime. Most hourly workers must be paid 1.5× their normal rate for hours beyond 40 in a week. "Salaried" does not automatically mean exempt — the exemption depends both on your actual duties and on a salary threshold, currently $684 a week under federal rules. Someone paid a salary below that is owed overtime whatever their job title says, and misclassification is one of the most common wage violations there is.

Payment for all hours worked. Including setup before a shift, cleaning after it, and required training. Time spent working off the clock is unpaid wages, not a favour.

A safe workplace. OSHA requires employers to provide safe conditions and required protective equipment, and to inform you of hazards. You may refuse work you reasonably believe is imminently dangerous.

Freedom from retaliation. It is illegal to fire, demote or threaten an employee for reporting unpaid wages, unsafe conditions, or discrimination.

Two ways wages disappear quietly

Being called an independent contractor. A worker given a 1099 instead of a W-2 loses overtime, minimum wage protection, unemployment eligibility and the employer's half of the payroll tax — and is handed a tax bill they were not expecting. Whether you are genuinely a contractor depends on how much control the business has over your work, not on what the paperwork calls you. If you are told when, where and how to work, and supervised while doing it, you are very likely an employee.

Deductions. An employer may not deduct the cost of uniforms, tools, breakages or till shortages if doing so takes your pay below the minimum wage, and in many states may not deduct them at all without written consent.

What is not guaranteed by federal law

• Paid sick leave or paid holiday — not federally required, though many states and cities do require sick leave
• Meal and rest breaks — no federal requirement for adults, but many states require them, and any short break an employer does offer must be paid
• Advance notice of dismissal — most U.S. employment is "at will", meaning either side can end it at any time for almost any reason
• Severance pay

Employment may be at will, but it may still not be ended for an illegal reason: race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, or in retaliation for a protected complaint.

Keep your own records

Write down your hours, your rate, and your shifts. Photograph rotas. Keep every pay slip. In a wage dispute the employer must produce records — but where records are missing, a worker's contemporaneous notes carry real weight, and a notebook kept at the time beats a reconstruction made a year later.

If something is wrong

1. Raise it in writing with the employer, so there is a record.
2. File a wage claim with your state labour department, or with the U.S. Department of Labor. Free, and you do not need a lawyer.
3. Report unsafe conditions to OSHA, which accepts complaints confidentially.
4. Contact a workers' rights or legal aid organisation. Many are free, and many operate in the languages their communities speak — see emergency numbers and legal help.

There are deadlines, some as short as 180 days for discrimination complaints. Act sooner rather than later; a claim that is right on the facts still fails if it is late.

If the job has ended rather than gone wrong, unemployment benefits may be available — including to non-citizens who were authorised to work.