Yes, you can sue your employer for changing your time card if the change reduced your recorded hours below what you actually worked. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, that kind of alteration is wage theft, and you have the right to file a federal complaint, bring a private lawsuit, or both. A successful claim recovers the unpaid wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and your attorney’s fees.
What Counts as an Illegal Time Card Change
Federal law requires every covered employer to keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid for each nonexempt employee.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 211 – Collection of Data When an employer edits those records so they show fewer hours than you actually worked, that’s not clerical housekeeping. It’s wage theft.
Time shaving takes several forms. A supervisor might delete minutes before or after a shift, round your clock-in and clock-out times in the company’s favor, or automatically deduct break periods you never took. Some employers trim just enough time to keep you under 40 hours, which brings a second violation into play: federal law requires overtime at one and a half times your regular rate for hours beyond 40 in a workweek.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 207 – Maximum Hours
Not every edit is illegal. Employers are allowed to correct records to reflect what actually happened. If you forgot to clock in and your manager fills in the correct time, that’s legitimate. If the system logged a duplicate punch and payroll removes it, that’s legitimate. If you called out sick and the record is updated to show paid time off, that’s legitimate. The test is simple: does the corrected record match reality? If yes, the change is lawful. If it pulls the record away from reality in a way that costs you money, it crosses into wage theft.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 21 – Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
What You Can Recover
The FLSA doubles the bill. An employer found liable for unpaid wages or unpaid overtime pays the full amount owed plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties If your employer shorted you $5,000 by altering time cards, the total liability is $10,000. The employer must also cover your attorney’s fees and court costs.
Criminal penalties can also apply. A willful FLSA violation can bring a fine of up to $10,000, up to six months in jail, or both, with imprisonment available for a second conviction.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties
State wage laws often add to these consequences. Some states treat intentional underpayment as criminal theft or a felony above a set dollar threshold. Some allow treble damages instead of the federal double. What your state adds depends on where you work, and a state claim can be filed alongside a federal one.
How Long You Have to File
You have two years from the date of each violation to file a federal claim for unpaid wages. If the conduct was willful, the deadline extends to three years.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 255 – Statute of Limitations Deliberately altering time cards is the kind of conduct courts routinely classify as willful, so the longer window usually applies.
Each shortchanged paycheck starts its own clock. If your employer shaved time weekly for 18 months, you can potentially recover for the full 18 months, but the oldest weeks fall out of reach the longer you wait. State deadlines can be shorter or longer than the federal timeline, which matters if you plan to file a state claim as well.
Are You Covered by the FLSA?
The FLSA’s wage protections apply to nonexempt employees. If you earn an hourly wage, you’re almost certainly nonexempt. Salaried employees are covered too unless they meet specific exemption tests based on both salary and job duties.
If you earn less than $684 per week ($35,568 per year), you’re automatically nonexempt regardless of your job title.6U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption Above that threshold, exemption depends on whether your primary duties involve managing others, exercising independent judgment on significant business matters, or performing work requiring advanced specialized education.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the FLSA
Job titles don’t decide the question. An “assistant manager” who spends most of the day doing the same work as hourly staff is likely nonexempt. What you actually do controls, not what the employer calls you.
Evidence You Need to Build Your Case
Documentation is where these cases are won or lost. Start keeping your own independent record right now. A notebook with daily start times, end times, and break durations works. A time-tracking app on your phone works. The point is to create a parallel record you control that can be lined up against your employer’s version.
Other useful evidence includes pay stubs showing fewer hours than you worked, text messages or emails about scheduling, coworker observations of your arrival and departure, and any written communications where a supervisor discussed changing time records. Security camera footage and badge-swipe entry logs can corroborate your hours independently.
If your employer’s records are missing or inaccurate, the law shifts in your favor. Under Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., when an employer fails to keep proper records, you don’t have to prove your hours down to the minute. You need to show you performed work you weren’t paid for and provide enough evidence for a reasonable estimate of how much. The burden then shifts to the employer to produce accurate records or disprove your estimate.8Legal Information Institute. Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. An employer who tampered with the records has a hard time asking a judge to trust those same records.
Filing a Complaint With the Department of Labor
You don’t need a lawyer to start. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigates FLSA violations and can order your employer to pay back wages on your behalf.
To file, call the WHD at 1-866-487-9243. You’ll be routed to your nearest local office.9U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint Have this ready: your employer’s name and address, your supervisor’s name, the type of work you do, how and when you’re paid, and a description of the time card changes and the period they cover. Your complaint is confidential, and the WHD cannot disclose your name to your employer.
One tradeoff matters before you file. If the Secretary of Labor sues your employer on your behalf for these violations, your right to bring your own private lawsuit for the same violations ends.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties That’s worth understanding upfront, especially if your individual damages are large enough to justify private litigation.
Suing Your Employer Directly
You can file a private lawsuit in federal or state court without going through the DOL. A successful FLSA claim recovers unpaid wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties Filing under state wage law can add different damages depending on your jurisdiction.
If your employer was shaving time from multiple employees, you may not have to go it alone. The FLSA allows collective actions, where one or more employees sue on behalf of themselves and other workers in the same situation. Unlike a class action, each worker who wants in must affirmatively opt in by filing written consent with the court. A collective action increases pressure on the employer and spreads the litigation costs across the group.
Courts weigh good faith when setting damages. An employer who claims innocent bookkeeping errors faces a different outcome than one who directed supervisors to trim hours every pay period. Deliberate, systematic time shaving is what triggers full liquidated damages and the three-year recovery window.
Protection Against Retaliation
Fear of being fired stops a lot of people from reporting wage theft. The FLSA addresses that directly. It is illegal for any employer to fire, demote, cut hours, or otherwise punish you for filing a wage complaint or cooperating with an investigation.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 215 – Prohibited Acts The protection applies whether your complaint was made verbally or in writing, and most courts have held that internal complaints to your own employer are protected too.11U.S. Department of Labor. Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
The anti-retaliation provision covers all employees of a covered employer, including those whose own work might not otherwise fall under the FLSA, and extends to actions by former employers. If you were fired for complaining and your old boss sabotages your next job in retaliation, that’s a separate violation. Remedies include reinstatement, lost wages, and liquidated damages equal to those lost wages.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties
When to Talk to an Attorney
Many straightforward cases get resolved through a DOL complaint. Some situations change the calculus. If your employer has been altering records for a long period, if the lost wages are significant, if you’ve already experienced retaliation, or if the statute of limitations is close to expiring, legal advice early protects options that disappear quickly.
An employment attorney can evaluate whether your claim is stronger under federal law, state law, or both. Many handle wage cases on contingency, collecting a fee only if you win. The FLSA’s requirement that employers pay the prevailing employee’s attorney’s fees makes these cases viable for lawyers even when the individual wage loss isn’t enormous. That fee-shifting rule exists so the cost of hiring counsel doesn’t keep workers from enforcing their rights.