How to document unpaid wages, overtime and missed breaks
Published by Report 2 HR · Updated October 31, 2026 · 3 min read
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Each day, write down when you started and stopped, any meal and rest breaks you took or missed, and what you were doing when you worked extra. Keep pay stubs and schedules and compare them. Official agencies explain how to file a wage claim, and time limits apply.
A daily record that works
The California Labor Commissioner suggests gathering a daily record of start and end times, meal and rest breaks and total hours, along with pay stubs or itemized wage statements. Write each entry the same day when you can.
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Date, start time, end time.
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Meal break: taken or not, start and end, and whether you were free to leave and relieved of duty.
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Rest breaks: taken, shortened, interrupted or missed.
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Extra work: what and why (closing tasks, a manager’s request, work from home), and who knew.
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Pay received for the period, from your pay stub.
The free builder has a shift, break and pay section so you can line records up by date, and a template page with an incident log you can fill in yourself.
Private by design: nothing is sent to HR or to Report 2 HR. You decide what to do with the finished document.
California meal and rest breaks (official summary)
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Meal period: a 30-minute meal period is required when you work more than five hours, starting by the end of the fifth hour; a second is required if you work more than ten hours in a day. You must be relieved of all duty; if not, it is an on-duty meal period that counts as time worked and must be paid.
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Rest period: a net ten consecutive minutes for each four hours worked or major fraction, paid, and taken, as far as practicable, in the middle of each work period.
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If a required meal period or rest period is not provided, the employer owes one additional hour of pay at your regular rate for each workday affected (the premium is per day, separately for meal and rest).
There are exceptions and special rules for certain industries and for waivers. Check the Labor Commissioner pages for your situation.
Overtime basics
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Federal law (FLSA): covered, non-exempt workers must receive at least one and one-half times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek.
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California: non-exempt employees are owed overtime for more than 8 hours in a workday or more than 40 in a workweek, and for work on the seventh consecutive day; 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 8 up to 12 in a day, and double time for hours over 12 in a day. Work an employer allows or benefits from must be paid even if it was not pre-approved.
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Some employees are exempt from overtime; exempt status depends on the job’s duties and pay, not just a title.
Employers must keep records of hours worked each day and week under federal law, but if their records and yours disagree, your own contemporaneous record can matter. Check with an agency or attorney about how records are used.
Putting it together
Fictional example
one week
Mon 8:00–17:30. Meal 12:00–12:30 taken. Rest breaks: one taken, one skipped (rush). Closed register 17:00–17:30 at the manager’s request.
Tue 8:00–19:00. No meal break (short-staffed). Manager said “just eat at the counter”. Pay stub shows 8 hours for each day.
Weekly total from my notes: 41 hours. Pay stub: 40.
Names and events are made up for illustration.
If you want to act
Many people first ask their employer to correct the pay in writing. A wage claim can be filed with the California Labor Commissioner (online for wage claims) or, for federal wage and hour issues, with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The Labor Commissioner lists time limits: three years for minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest breaks and other wage claims it names, with shorter limits for some other claims. Deadlines apply even while you talk with your employer; check the current page.
General information only
This is general educational information, not legal advice, and it has not yet been reviewed by an attorney. Laws and agency rules change and depend on your facts. Report 2 HR is a writing tool: it does not investigate, file complaints or protect deadlines.
Official sources
These pages were read when this article was written (October 31, 2026). Rules and deadlines change; check the source before you rely on it. Federal and California guidance are listed separately.