If you think your employer is not paying you for all the hours you work, start collecting evidence now, before you file anything. A wage claim usually turns on one question: what hours did you work, and what were you promised for them. Records answer that question. Memories do not.
Wage theft is a broad term. It covers unpaid overtime, work done off the clock, pay below the legal minimum, illegal deductions, and final paychecks that never arrive. You do not need to know which category your problem fits before you start a file. You just need to start one.
This guide explains what to save, how to save it, and what investigators and courts tend to look for. It is general information, not legal advice. Rules on pay and deadlines vary by state and by job, so check with your state labor agency or a lawyer for your specific situation.
Why do records decide a wage claim?
A wage complaint is a claim about facts. The person investigating it was not in the break room and did not see you lock up at closing. They reconstruct what happened from whatever both sides can produce. The side with the better records usually shapes that reconstruction.
There is a reason the word "evidence" shows up so often in this setting. As the Wikipedia entry on documents puts it, historically a document was written proof useful as evidence of a truth or fact, and that function is exactly what matters here. A pay stub memorializes what your employer says it paid you. A saved text memorializes what a manager asked you to do. Both can be checked against the other.
Employers are generally required to keep their own time and pay records. But when records are missing, incomplete, or disputed, the conversation shifts to what the worker can show. A worker with a dated log, saved messages and pay stubs gives the investigator something to test. A worker with only an estimate gives the employer room to argue.
What should you save first?
Start with anything that shows pay and hours. Gather what you already have before you create anything new.
- Pay stubs, direct-deposit statements, or screenshots of your pay app history.
- Time records: clock-in screenshots, punch logs, timecards, or photos of a wall time sheet.
- Your schedule: posted schedules, shift-change texts, calendar invites.
- Hiring documents: offer letters, texts or emails about your rate, and any agreement you signed.
- Work product that shows you were there: badge swipes, delivery logs, orders you handled, customer receipts with your name or ID.
If you were paid in cash with no stub, this matters even more. Save the envelopes, deposit slips, any app transfers, and anything else that ties money to your job.
One caution: take only copies of documents you legitimately have access to. Do not take originals your employer owns, and do not access systems you are not authorized to use. Copies and photographs of your own pay and time information are the safe path.
How do you build a record going forward?
If the problem is ongoing, start a contemporaneous log. Write down each shift soon after it happens, while the details are fresh.
- Date and shift times. Note when you actually started and stopped, including any work before or after your scheduled hours.
- What the work was. A short line is enough: opened the store, closed the register, drove the route.
- Who directed it. Names of managers or supervisors who set the schedule or asked for the extra time.
- What you were paid. Match each period to the pay that actually arrived.
Keep the log somewhere your employer does not control. A personal notebook, a note app on your own phone, or a document you email to yourself all work. Free tools such as Microsoft Word for the web let you create and edit documents at no cost, which is enough for a running log with dates in one column and hours in another. What matters is not the software. It is that the entries are dated as you go, not reconstructed later.
Save messages with their context. A screenshot of a text is more useful if it shows the sender, the date and the surrounding thread. Do not crop out the parts that identify who said what. If a manager calls instead of texting, follow up with a short message that restates the instruction, such as confirming you will stay to close. That creates your own written record of a spoken request.
Do witnesses and coworkers help?
Yes, but treat their accounts as something to collect carefully, not as a substitute for your own records.
A coworker who worked the same unpaid shifts can corroborate your account. Note their name, role, and which shifts they shared with you. Ask if they would be willing to describe what they saw if an investigator contacts them. Some will not want to, and that is their call; pressure damages a case rather than helping it.
Write down your own contemporaneous notes of relevant conversations: who said what, when, and who else was present. A note you made at the time carries more weight than a summary written months later, because it does not depend on memory alone.
What happens after you file?
Once your file is in order, the next step is usually a complaint to the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor or your state labor agency. The federal process is public and structured, and our explainer on how a Wage and Hour Division investigation works walks through what investigators do after a complaint arrives: examine records, interview people, and calculate what is owed.
The scale of that enforcement is real. As we reported on the agency's own figures, the wage agency reports $259 million recovered for 177,000 workers in a recent fiscal year. Recoveries like that start with complaints, and complaints start with records.
Your documentation does several jobs at once. It helps the agency decide whether to open an investigation. It shortens the investigation, because the hours and rates are easier to verify. And if the matter later moves to a private lawsuit, the same file becomes the foundation of the case. Keep copies of everything you submit, and keep collecting records until the matter is resolved.
What this means for you
Our analysis of how wage claims succeed comes down to a simple habit: separate what happened from what you can show. The strongest claim is not the one with the loudest grievance. It is the one where a dated log, saved messages and pay records all point the same direction.
Three practical steps, in order. First, gather what exists today: stubs, screenshots, hiring documents. Second, start a dated log now if the problem is ongoing, and keep it somewhere you control. Third, save context on every message, so each one shows who sent it and when.
Do it quietly and do it completely. You are not building an argument. You are building the factual record someone else will use to decide whether you were paid what the law requires. For more on the agencies and rules that govern pay, see our labor-rights coverage, and for related enforcement topics, our reporting on the 30-day deadline for safety retaliation complaints shows how strict filing windows can be in adjacent areas of workplace law.