Employment · all 51 jurisdictions
Hours worked past 40 and not paid at time and a half, or timecards edited down.
The rule here is mostly federal, so the answer is close to the same wherever you live. State pages exist only where that state adds something of its own.
everywhere in the u.s.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| state | free route |
|---|---|
| AL Alabama | Alabama has no state office that takes a wage claim, and no state minimum wage or overtime law behind one. The free route here is the federal Wage and Hour Division: filing a complaint costs nothing, and by law the Division may not disclose your name, what you complained about, or that a complaint exists at all.↗ |
| AK Alaska | The Wage and Hour Administration takes wage claims, and its own page says it provides sole enforcement of the laws on payment of wages, minimum wage and overtime — it acts on the worker's behalf to collect from the employer. Reach an investigator by phone; the office notes it has no investigator on call on Tuesdays or Thursdays.↗ |
| AZ Arizona | The Labor Department of the Industrial Commission takes an Unpaid Wage Claim Form, and note that it is a different form from the Commission's Minimum Wage Claim Form and its Earned Paid Sick Time Claim Form. Arizona sets no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime itself rests on the federal rule above.↗ |
| AR Arkansas | The Labor Standards Section investigates wage claims of $2,000 or less, and you may not file one at all if the amount in dispute is more than $2,000 or if you earn more than $50,000 a year. Inside those limits it is unusually generous: it does not matter whether you were an employee or an independent contractor, both are covered, and if the claim is found valid the Division may take legal action to collect.↗ |
| CA California | The Labor Commissioner's Office takes a wage claim online, by email, by post or in person, and it costs nothing. For overtime you have three years to file it — the same three years as minimum wage, meal and rest breaks and illegal deductions, and longer than the two years the same office allows for an oral promise to pay above minimum wage. It has no jurisdiction over a genuine independent contractor, but it says to file anyway if you think you were misclassified as one.↗ |
| CO Colorado | The Division of Labor Standards and Statistics takes a Labor Standards Complaint online or on paper, and it investigates unpaid overtime by name. It will not hear a claim for more than $13,000 — though you may file for part of what you are owed to stay under that — and it cannot order wages earned more than two years ago unless the employer's conduct was willful, which stretches it to three.↗ |
| CT Connecticut | The Wage and Workplace Standards Division of the Department of Labor takes the complaint. Its own guidance is worth having before you file: overtime is due on hours actually worked over 40, there is no daily, weekend or holiday overtime unless your employer agreed to it, and every employer must keep true time and wage records at the workplace for three years.↗ |
| DE Delaware | The Division of Industrial Affairs takes a workplace complaint and says it is handled confidentially, with a response promised within 48 hours. Delaware sets no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime behind the complaint is the federal rule above.↗ |
| DC District of Columbia | The Office of Wage-Hour at the Department of Employment Services takes the claim. Do not confuse it with the department's other “File a Claim” door, which is unemployment. The District's minimum wage rose to $18.40 an hour on 1 July 2026 for every worker whatever the employer's size, and it is that rate, not the federal one, that your overtime is calculated on.↗ |
| FL Florida | Florida sets a minimum wage but no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime is the federal claim above and the free route is the federal Wage and Hour Division. A complaint costs nothing, and by law the Division may not disclose your name, what you complained about, or that a complaint exists.↗ |
| GA Georgia | Georgia sets no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime is the federal claim above and the free route is the federal Wage and Hour Division. A complaint costs nothing, and by law the Division may not disclose your name, what you complained about, or that a complaint exists.↗ |
| HI Hawaii | The Wage Standards Division takes a complaint for unpaid wages, and it invites you to call the office first to go through your situation. Hawaii has a rule worth knowing before you do: where the employer disputes how much is owed, it must pay the part it admits to, on time and with no strings, and accepting that partial payment does not settle or release the rest.↗ |
| ID Idaho | The Department of Labor takes a wage claim online for wages due and not paid, on the same complaints page as its workforce complaints. It says plainly that where it is not authorised to handle a complaint it will refer it to the agency that is. Idaho sets no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime itself is the federal claim above.↗ |
| IL Illinois | The Fair Labor Standards Division of the Department of Labor takes the complaint, and it is the division that enforces both the Minimum Wage Law — which is where the overtime rule and the treble damages above live — and the Wage Payment and Collection Act.↗ |
| IN Indiana | The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division takes an online wage claim. Indiana adds no overtime rule of its own beyond the federal 40 hours, but its wage-payment law is worth knowing: an employer who fails to pay on time owes the wages, your attorney's fee and court costs, and twice the wages again as liquidated damages if the court finds the failure was not in good faith.↗ |
| IA Iowa | The Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing takes an Iowa wage claim, published in English and Spanish, and it will go as far as filing a lawsuit on your behalf to collect. It must be less than a year — 365 days — since the wages were due. On overtime it refers you out: its own page says to contact the federal Wage and Hour Office, which enforces overtime law.↗ |
| KS Kansas | The Office of Employment Standards takes wage claim form K-ESLR 105, online or on paper, and it is published in Spanish as well as English. A Labor Conciliator sends the claim to your employer, who has ten business days to answer in writing. You must respond to that answer or the case may be closed without an investigation. If it does not settle, there is a hearing before a presiding officer, which the agency describes as essentially a trial.↗ |
| KY Kentucky | The Division of Wages and Hours administers and enforces Kentucky's minimum wage, overtime, wage payment, lunch and rest period, payroll deduction and wage discrimination laws, and it investigates employee complaints about them. Complaints go in through the Cabinet's own online complaint system.↗ |
| LA Louisiana | Louisiana has no state minimum wage law and no state overtime rule behind it, so the free route here is the federal Wage and Hour Division. A complaint to it costs nothing, and by law the Division may not disclose your name, what you complained about, or that a complaint exists.↗ |
| ME Maine | The Department of Labor takes the complaint, and Maine applies an unusual rule about who handles it: in wage cases jurisdiction goes to whichever authority offers the worker the most protection, which means the one with the highest enforceable minimum wage. Where a city has set its own higher minimum, the state will refer you to that city's enforcement office.↗ |
| MD Maryland | The Employment Standards Service at the Division of Labor and Industry takes a claim for problems collecting wages, overtime, tips or pay for leave. The claim form has to carry your signature and reach the Service before any investigation starts, so an unsigned form is not a filed claim.↗ |
| MA Massachusetts | The Attorney General's Fair Labor Division takes the wage complaint online. Ask for a “private right of action” letter in the comment box of that form: it is what lets you sue on your own, and it is the door to the treble damages above. Expect to hear back in three to four weeks. The limitations period for most wage and hour violations is three years.↗ |
| MI Michigan | The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity takes an Online Wage and Benefit Complaint Form. For unpaid minimum wage or overtime you have three years from the violation to file it — notably longer than the twelve months the same office allows for ordinary unpaid wages and fringe benefits.↗ |
| MN Minnesota | The Labor Standards Division of the Department of Labor and Industry helps you file a wage claim and works to recover the wages, and it says an investigator will contact you within two business days. The wage claim fact sheet is published in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali.↗ |
| MS Mississippi | Mississippi has no state minimum wage law and no state overtime rule behind it, so the free route here is the federal Wage and Hour Division. A complaint to it costs nothing, and by law the Division may not disclose your name, what you complained about, or that a complaint exists.↗ |
| MO Missouri | The Division of Labor Standards takes a minimum wage complaint. Missouri sets no overtime rule of its own, and its minimum wage law does not reach a retail or service business with annual gross income under $500,000 at all — where it does not, the federal rule above is the whole of the answer.↗ |
| MT Montana | The Department of Labor and Industry takes an online wage claim, and it is one of the few state offices that says on its own page that it enforces the federal Fair Labor Standards Act as well as Montana's own wage and overtime law. The alternative it names is filing in District Court instead.↗ |
| NE Nebraska | The Labor Standards office of the Department of Labor takes a wage complaint form for past due or unpaid wages, payroll disputes, unauthorised deductions and minimum wage. Nebraska has no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime itself is the federal claim above.↗ |
| NV Nevada | The Office of the Labor Commissioner takes a wage claim on its own employee form, and it is the office responsible for enforcing minimum wage, prevailing wage and overtime in Nevada.↗ |
| NH New Hampshire | The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour inspection office takes an online wage claim, and it administers the state Minimum Wage Law, RSA 279, along with the payment-of-wages rules in Administrative Rule Chapter Lab 800.↗ |
| NJ New Jersey | The Division of Wage and Hour and Contract Compliance takes a wage complaint through the Department of Labor's online services portal, and overtime is one of the subjects it names. If the outcome goes against you, the same portal takes an appeal.↗ |
| NM New Mexico | The Labor Relations Division of the Department of Workforce Solutions enforces payment of wages, minimum wage and overtime under the Wage Pay Act and the Minimum Wage Act, and it takes claims for unpaid wages and investigates them. The wage claim form is published in English and Spanish. If a previous claim of yours was closed or limited under the old limits, the Division runs a re-investigation route for exactly that.↗ |
| NY New York | The Division of Labor Standards takes the Labor Standards Complaint Form, form LS223, and it names overtime on its face along with unpaid wages, illegal deductions, minimum wage and missed meal periods. Expect a letter with a case number in 25 to 30 business days. The Division may decline a claim for wages earned more than three years ago.↗ |
| NC North Carolina | The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Bureau will not take an overtime complaint. Its own filing page lists minimum wage, overtime and wages that include overtime among the things that must go to the federal Wage and Hour Division instead. What it does take is unpaid wages excluding overtime, final paychecks, vacation pay and unauthorised deductions — and it says it will not accept those for wages due more than a year ago.↗ |
| ND North Dakota | The Department of Labor and Human Rights takes a wage claim and names failure to pay overtime first among its own examples, alongside unauthorised paycheck deductions and a missing final paycheck including unused PTO.↗ |
| OH Ohio | The Division of Industrial Compliance at the Department of Commerce takes a minimum wage complaint, and it is the office that handles wage and hour matters in Ohio.↗ |
| OK Oklahoma | The Department of Labor takes a wage claim once your wages are actually late, and Oklahoma defines late precisely: pay dates must fall within 11 days of the end of a pay period, and the employer gets 3 more days — 72 hours — after the scheduled pay date to pay. Past that window the right to file opens.↗ |
| OR Oregon | The Bureau of Labor and Industries takes a wage claim through its Complaint Resolution Center, and unpaid overtime is one of the things it names a wage claim for, alongside not being paid at all, being paid under the minimum wage, and a missing final paycheck.↗ |
| PA Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania has a separate Minimum Wage and Overtime Complaint, which is not the same form as the wage-payment one — send overtime to the wrong queue and it sits there. The Department of Labor and Industry investigates it, the online form times out after 20 minutes, and the paper version can go by fax, email or post to the Bureau of Labor Law Compliance in Harrisburg. It is published in Spanish as well as English.↗ |
| RI Rhode Island | The Labor Standards unit of the Department of Labor and Training investigates wage complaints and names overtime among them, alongside minimum wage, payment of wages, and Sunday and holiday premium pay.↗ |
| SC South Carolina | The Office of Wages and Child Labor at the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation handles payment of wages. South Carolina has no state minimum wage law and so no state overtime rule, which means the overtime itself is the federal claim above and the federal Wage and Hour Division is the office that enforces it.↗ |
| SD South Dakota | The Department of Labor and Regulation takes a Claim of Unpaid Wages form for wages owed or for not being paid at least the minimum wage. South Dakota sets no overtime rule of its own, so the overtime part of the claim rests on the federal rule above.↗ |
| TN Tennessee | The Labor Standards Unit takes a wage claim online and then sends you a Statement of Wage Claim Form with an inspector's name on it, which you have to sign and send back before anything starts. The employer gets 20 calendar days to put it right; after that the claim goes to the Central Office for review and a possible penalty. If the claim is outside the unit's jurisdiction it is closed and you are referred elsewhere.↗ |
| TX Texas | The Texas Workforce Commission takes a Payday Law wage claim online or on paper, and it must be received within 180 days of the date the wages were due — the date it arrives is the date that counts. If part of what you are owed falls inside the 180 days and part outside, file for the part inside. There is a limit on how much the Commission may award, and it cannot touch a claim at all once the employer is in bankruptcy.↗ |
| UT Utah | The Wage Claim Unit of the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division does more than investigate: its own description is that it processes, investigates, mediates, adjudicates and files judgments on wage claims. A judgment from it is enforceable the way a court's is, which is unusual for a state wage office.↗ |
| VT Vermont | The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour programme takes an Online Wage Claim Form, and the department keeps a Wage and Hour contact line beside it for questions before you file.↗ |
| VA Virginia | Beginning 1 July 2026 the Department of Labor and Industry may investigate and enforce overtime, which it could not do before. Its Payment of Wage Unit takes the claim on a form you file yourself. For overtime earned before that date the Department says to go to the federal Wage and Hour Division instead, or to sue.↗ |
| WA Washington | Labor and Industries takes a Workplace Rights Complaint online. Its own guidance is worth reading before you file: hours you worked without permission still have to be paid, even if you can be disciplined for working them, and any agreed wage above the minimum has to be used in the overtime calculation rather than the minimum wage.↗ |
| WV West Virginia | The Wage and Hour Section of the Division of Labor enforces state wage payment and minimum wage law, but it says on its own page that the payment of overtime wages is preempted by federal statute and therefore enforced by federal agencies. So the overtime half of your claim goes to the federal Wage and Hour Division, and the state office keeps the rest.↗ |
| WI Wisconsin | The Equal Rights Division takes a Labor Standards Complaint online, and hours of work and overtime are named on the form's own list of what it is for, alongside wage payment and collection. You sign in with a MyWisconsin ID to file it.↗ |
| WY Wyoming | The Labor Standards Division of the Department of Workforce Services takes a Claim for Wages, filed online. Filing it authorises the Division to collect the money for you, and to settle for less than the full amount if it cannot get all of it — if it does that you have ten days to object in writing.↗ |
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