Your ailing paycheck: 5 symptoms to help diagnose if you're suffering from wage theft as a healthcare worker.

Health care workers often work varied shifts and schedules, but there is no doubt they can normally put in well over 40 hours a week. You may think that simply because your employer listed you as a "learned professional" or "exempt professional" that you have no choice but to accept this. That is not the case - if you are not being paid overtime you may be getting scammed. If your paycheck is hurting use these five tips to get a better idea of how you could be owed money.

Here are 5 simple ways you can tell if you need a checkup from our employment lawyers:

1. Automatic meal break deductions: Many healthcare workers, including nurses, are required to work through their lunch, or may not get the opportunity to take an actual break. If your employer automatically deducts meal times from your paycheck this is something that needs to be investigated. If you eat lunch at your desk or if your meal/break time is interrupted, the Fair Labor Standards Act states that your employer must compensate you for this time. If your time records are inaccurate or manipulated by your employer this is also a warning sign.

2. Do you do the same thing every day? Many healthcare workers perform work that is repeated over and over again. To fall under a "learned professional" exemption your job duties must consist of work requiring advanced knowledge or exercising discretion and judgment. If this doesn't apply to you then you may be eligible for overtime pay.

3. Do you work off the clock?

• pre-shift roll calls,
• setting up equipment before the official start time of a shift or
• driving time between house calls.

4. Do you meet the salary test?

5. Just because your employer said you're exempt doesn't mean it's true.
Employers often fail in establishing that nurses meet the learned professional exemption because they can't prove one or more of these requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act:

Nurses, paramedics, dieticians, and all healthcare workers should have a free checkup!
Call our wage lawyers at 888-449-2068 to start a free case review of your job duties today: This can yield huge revelations about what you should be paid. We have helped recover overtime and back wages for thousands of employees nationwide. Order our free book, or send us a confidential contact form to start your free case review.

The Texas overtime lawyers at Kennedy Hodges represent workers nationwide and across Texas in:
Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Pasadena, Laredo, Sugar Land, Lubbock, Illinios, New York, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Columbus, Charlotte, Detroit, and more.