What Records You Should Keep

  • Daily time records: start time, end time, meal breaks taken
  • Any work performed outside normal hours: early morning emails, late-night calls, weekend work
  • Pay stubs from every pay period (digital or physical)
  • Work schedules as posted or communicated
  • Any text messages, emails, or voicemails directing you to work off the clock
  • Notes from any conversations about hours, pay, or overtime (with date and who was present)

Simple Recordkeeping Methods

  • Smartphone notes app: date, in-time, out-time, any OT worked — takes 20 seconds per day
  • Simple spreadsheet: columns for date, in, out, hours, OT hours, regular pay, OT pay
  • GPS data from phone: timestamps and locations provide secondary confirmation of hours at job sites
  • Email timestamps: show when work emails were sent/received (documents off-hours work)
  • Time clock screenshots: photograph clock-in/out screens before leaving each day
💡Update Records Daily — Memory Fades Fast

The optimal recordkeeping habit: note your start and end times the moment you leave work, while memory is fresh. A 3-week-old time dispute where you’re trying to reconstruct hours from memory is much weaker than a contemporaneous daily log. One minute per day of recordkeeping provides powerful protection.

What FLSA Requires Employers to Record

FLSA requires employers to maintain: personal information (name, address, occupation), pay rate, total hours worked each day and workweek, total daily or weekly straight-time earnings, total weekly overtime earnings, total wages paid each pay period, and date of payment and period covered. Employers must keep these records for 3 years (2 years for supplementary basic records).

What Happens When Records Conflict

When employer records and employee records conflict in an FLSA dispute, courts generally apply the rule from Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery: if employer records are inadequate or inaccurate, the employee can present a good-faith estimate of hours worked, and the burden shifts to the employer to disprove it. Your independent records are valuable even if imperfect.

Calculate Your Overtime From Your Personal Records

Use your time logs to calculate exactly what you were owed and compare to what you were paid.

Open Overtime Pay Calculator →