14 wage and hour traps that turn into back pay claims

A medical assistant eats lunch at her desk because somebody has to cover the phones. The front desk lead comes in 20 minutes early to unlock the doors, boot the system and count the drawer. The office manager is salaried, so nobody tracks her hours at all. Inside the practice, none of that looks like wage theft. To a federal investigator, all three are the same finding.

The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recovered nearly $260 million in back wages for more than 175,000 workers in fiscal 2025, its highest total in five years. Health care alone accounted for 2,370 resolved violations and more than $53 million of that money. Administrator Andrew Rogers told a payroll compliance audience in March that overtime problems drive nearly 80 percent of all back wage violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The math is unforgiving once a claim lands. Back wages reach back two years, three if the violation is willful, and courts routinely add liquidated damages that double the number, plus the employee's attorney fees. State wage laws often reach further than federal law does. Almost none of it starts with a bad actor. It starts with habits nobody has looked at in years. Here are 14 places practices get caught, and what to check before someone else does.