If you've been denied overtime pay, federal law limits how far back a claim can reach. How that period is measured, and when it starts, decides how much of the unpaid overtime is recoverable.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) imposes a strict statute of limitations on overtime claims. Understanding how that deadline works — when it starts, how long it lasts, and what happens as time passes — is essential for any worker considering legal action. This page explains the FLSA statute of limitations in plain terms so you can make an informed decision about protecting your rights.
Under 29 U.S.C. Section 255, the statute of limitations for an FLSA overtime claim is either two years or three years, depending on one critical factor: whether the employer's violation was "willful."
This is the federal overtime statute of limitations. It applies to every FLSA claim filed in federal court, regardless of where you live or work. The difference between two years and three years can represent tens of thousands of dollars in recoverable damages, so the willfulness determination is often one of the most significant issues in an overtime case.
The U.S. Supreme Court defined "willful" in McLaughlin v. Richland Shoe Co.: an employer's violation of the FLSA is willful when the employer either knew that its conduct violated the FLSA or showed reckless disregard for whether it did.
This does not require proof that the employer acted with malicious intent. It does not require a smoking-gun memo admitting wrongdoing. It requires proof that the employer either knew the law and broke it anyway, or that the employer was so indifferent to the law's requirements that it never bothered to find out whether it was in compliance.
For workers in the managed care industry — particularly case managers, care coordinators, and utilization review nurses — the willfulness question often has a straightforward answer. Employers in this industry have been on notice for years that classifying these workers as exempt from overtime is legally questionable at best and flatly wrong at worst.
The Department of Labor has issued opinion letters addressing the overtime status of case management workers. Multiple federal lawsuits have resulted in significant settlements and judgments against employers who misclassified these positions. Industry publications and compliance advisories have flagged the issue repeatedly. When an employer continues to classify case managers as exempt in the face of this widespread notice, the argument for willfulness is strong.
This matters because a willful violation means you get three years of back pay instead of two. For a case manager earning $60,000 to $80,000 per year who routinely works 50-hour weeks, that extra year can represent $15,000 or more in additional damages.
The FLSA statute of limitations does not work like most deadlines people are familiar with. There is no single date after which your claim expires entirely. Instead, the statute of limitations operates on a rolling basis tied to each individual pay period.
Every paycheck you received that should have included overtime pay but did not is a separate violation of the FLSA. Each of those violations has its own statute of limitations that begins running on the date the paycheck was issued. This is sometimes called the continuing violation doctrine — the employer commits a new violation every time it issues a paycheck that fails to include required overtime compensation.
Here is what that means in practical terms. If you file a claim today and the court determines the violation was willful, you can recover unpaid overtime going back three years from today. A claim filed six months from now also reaches back three years, measured from that later filing date, so the three-year window covers a different set of pay periods.
Suppose you have been misclassified as exempt and denied overtime since January 2020. You work an average of 48 hours per week. Today is May 2026.
The total amount of overtime an employer failed to pay does not change. What changes is which pay periods fall inside the lookback window, because the window is measured backward from the filing date.
The FLSA is a federal law, but most states also have their own wage and hour statutes that provide overtime protections. In many cases, those state laws carry longer statutes of limitations than the FLSA. Some states allow workers to recover three, four, or even six years of unpaid wages under state law, regardless of whether the violation was willful.
When an employer violates the FLSA, it often violates state wage laws at the same time. An experienced overtime attorney will evaluate both federal and state claims to maximize the recovery period. In some cases, filing under state law in addition to — or instead of — the FLSA can significantly increase the amount of back pay you are entitled to recover.
The interplay between federal and state deadlines is fact-specific and depends on where you work, where your employer is based, and which state laws apply to your situation.
In limited circumstances, courts may apply a doctrine called equitable tolling to extend the statute of limitations beyond its normal expiration. Equitable tolling is available when a worker was prevented from filing a timely claim through no fault of their own — for example, when an employer actively concealed its violations or misled employees about their overtime rights.
Courts apply equitable tolling sparingly. It is not a guarantee and not something any worker should rely on. If you believe you may be outside the normal filing window, it is still worth speaking with an attorney. There may be circumstances in your case that support tolling, and you will not know unless you ask. Some orders also pause the limitations period if the employer is late handing over the worker list, as in Deschamps v. Nova Hardbanding and Burruss v. Wyoming Casing.
If you are considering joining a collective action — a group lawsuit under the FLSA — there is an important rule you need to understand about how the statute of limitations applies to each participant individually.
In an FLSA collective action, your statute of limitations runs from the date you personally file your consent form with the court — not from the date the original lawsuit was filed by the named plaintiff. This is a critical distinction that many workers misunderstand.
Suppose a named plaintiff files an FLSA collective action against your employer in January 2025. The court conditionally certifies the case and sends notice to eligible workers in July 2025. You receive the notice and decide to think about it. If you do not file your consent form until January 2026 — a full year after the original case was filed — your three-year lookback period only reaches January 2023. Meanwhile, the named plaintiff who filed in January 2025 can recover damages going back to January 2022. The difference between the two filing dates is a year of recoverable damages.
Because the lookback period is measured from the date the consent form is filed, that filing date determines how far back the claim reaches. Consent forms can be filed even before a court authorizes notice — in Kirkpatrick v. Cardinal Innovations, the court refused to strike consent forms filed before conditional certification.
Court orders can affect this period. In Snively v. Peak Pressure Control, the court in 2016 measured the three-year period from the date it authorized notice, not from the date the complaint was filed.
Workers who are concerned about retaliation sometimes delay filing an overtime claim, hoping the situation at work will improve or that they can wait until they leave the job.
The FLSA prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who assert their rights under the Act. If your employer fires you, demotes you, cuts your hours, or takes any other adverse action because you filed an overtime claim, you have a separate legal claim for retaliation. Federal law is designed to protect you when you exercise your rights — not to punish you for doing so.
A decision to hold off out of fear of retaliation does not pause the statute of limitations. Concerns about retaliation are valid, and an attorney can explain how the FLSA's protections apply.
Some workers believe they have no overtime claim because they are paid a salary rather than an hourly wage. This is one of the most common misconceptions in employment law and it leads workers to assume they have nothing to bring.
Being paid a salary does not automatically make you exempt from overtime. The FLSA exemptions are based on specific tests involving both your compensation level and the actual duties you perform. Many salaried workers — including case managers, care coordinators, and other managed care professionals — are misclassified as exempt and are entitled to overtime pay that they never received.
If you are unsure whether you are properly classified, do not assume you have no claim. Speak with an attorney who can evaluate your specific job duties against the legal standards. The consultation costs nothing and may reveal that you are owed years of back pay.
The FLSA statute of limitations is a rolling window, measured backward from the date a complaint or a written consent is filed.
You do not need to have all the answers before reaching out. You do not need to be certain about your classification, your hours, or your employer's intent. An experienced FLSA attorney can evaluate your situation and tell you where you stand — typically in a brief initial conversation.
If you are a case manager, care coordinator, utilization review nurse, or other managed care professional who has been working overtime without proper compensation, contact Siegel Law Group. The initial consultation is free.
This page provides general information about the FLSA statute of limitations and is not legal advice. Every situation is different. An attorney can evaluate the specific facts of your case and advise you on the deadlines that apply to your claims. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
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Attorney advertising. Jack L. Siegel of Siegel Law Group PLLC, Dallas, Texas, is responsible for this content.
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