If you are salaried and working more than 40 hours a week, you may still be owed overtime. A salary is not what makes someone exempt — the work is. And in Kansas, the claim that gets you paid is almost always the federal one, because the Kansas overtime statute was written to step aside wherever federal law applies. That is good news, not bad. Federal law is the stronger claim: overtime after 40 hours instead of 46, double damages, and your lawyer’s fee paid by the employer.
The Kansas Department of Labor puts it plainly: “It depends on whether they are classified as exempt. If they are salaried but not exempt, they are still entitled to overtime. Whether or not a person is exempt depends on what kind of work they do.”1
There are two tests, and your employer has to pass both. The salary level comes first: to be exempt, you must be “compensated on a salary basis at a rate of not less than $684 per week”.2 A separate shortcut applies to anyone with “total annual compensation of at least $107,432”.2
Then the duties have to match. A “supervisor” carrying the same caseload or running the same line as the people below them is misclassified, whatever the title says. A flat salary does not buy unlimited hours. See salary versus hourly and the administrative exemption. This firm concentrates in these cases for case managers and utilization review staff.
Two provisions do the work, and both are blunt. The definition of “employer” in the state wage law covers almost anyone “but shall not include any employer who is subject to the provisions of the fair labor standards act of 1938”.3 And the state overtime section does not apply to “any employee who is covered under the provisions of section 7 of the fair labor standards act of 1938 as amended, 29 U.S.C.A. § 207”.4 The state minimum wage section carries the same exclusion.5
In September 2026 the Kansas Court of Appeals said the same thing in one sentence: “When the Fair Labor Standards Act applies to an employee’s claim for unpaid overtime, the Kansas Minimum Wage and Maximum Hours Law does not apply.”6
Federal law reaches nearly every employer of any size. So for nearly every Kansas worker, the operative overtime rule is the federal one: no employer may work you “for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.”7
“On and after January 1, 1978, no employer shall employ any employee for a workweek longer than 46 hours, unless such employee receives compensation for employment in excess of 46 hours in a workweek at a rate of not less than 1½ times the hourly wage rate at which such employee is regularly employed.”4 Forty-six, not forty. Workers find that number and assume they have been underpaid for years under a rule nobody told them about. It reaches only the narrow set of employers outside federal law. The state agency itself draws the line: “State law says that overtime is due once an employee has worked 46 hours within a week. Federal law says that overtime is due once an employee has worked 40 hours within a week.”1
Even in the narrow case where the state law does apply, it excludes a long list of workers from the word “employee”: anyone “employed in agriculture”; anyone in “domestic service in or about a private home”; anyone “employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity or in the capacity of an outside commission paid salesman, as such terms are defined and delimited by rules and regulations of the secretary”; federal employees; anyone “who renders service gratuitously for a nonprofit organization”; and “persons eighteen years of age or less employed for any purpose on an occasional or part-time basis”.9 That last one is wider than it sounds, because the statute defines “occasional or part-time basis” as “any employee working less than 40 hours per week”.9
Note which rulebook the state exemptions run on — the Kansas Secretary of Labor’s regulations, not the federal ones. The two lists are not the same. The $684 figure is the right number for your case precisely because your case is almost certainly federal.
Until last month, a worker with a federal overtime claim could argue that the Kansas Wage Payment Act supplied an extra penalty on top — a separate state statute with no federal carve-out in it. That argument is gone.
On September 25, 2026, the Kansas Court of Appeals held: “Therefore, the Kansas Wage and Payment Act cannot be used as an enforcement mechanism for claims of unpaid overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”6 The body of the opinion is just as flat: “this court concludes that the KWPA enforcement and penalty provisions cannot be used to enforce claims for unpaid overtime under the FLSA.”6 The reason is that the state act adds nothing: it “does not provide employees with additional or different substantive rights than the FLSA for claims of unpaid overtime”.6
So on a federal overtime case, the federal remedies are the remedies. That is not a consolation prize. You recover your unpaid overtime “and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages” — double — and the court “shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney’s fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action.”8 Shall, not may.
The court left the state penalty available where the overtime right itself comes from Kansas law: “An employer can be held liable under the Kansas Wage and Payment Act for claims of unpaid overtime in violation of the Kansas Minimum Wage and Maximum Hours Law.”6 That is the narrow non-federal set again.
Plenty — just not overtime. The Kansas Wage Payment Act is “a broad legislative scheme designed to ensure that employees are paid all wages owed when due”.6 Its definition of “employer” reaches any company, the state, a city, a county or a school district “employing any person,” with no federal carve-out in it at all.10 If your employer shorted your last paycheck, withheld a commission, or never paid you for straight hours you worked, this is your statute.
The teeth are in the penalty. Where an employer willfully fails to pay wages when due or on separation, it owes the wages and “also shall be liable to the employee for a penalty in the fixed amount of 1% of the unpaid wages for each day, except Sunday and legal holidays, upon which such failure continues after the eighth day after the day upon which payment is required or in an amount equal to 100% of the unpaid wages, whichever is less.”11
And individuals are reachable. “Any officer, manager, major shareholder or other person who has charge of the affairs of an employer, and who knowingly permits the employer to engage in violations of K.S.A. 44-314 or 44-315 … may be deemed the employer for purposes of this act.”12 The Court of Appeals confirmed in September 2026 that this is not an owners-only rule: “Personal liability under the KWPA is not limited to owners, but it can extend to officers, managers, major shareholders, and any ‘other person who has charge of the affairs’ of a liable employer.”6
One thing this statute does not give you is your lawyer’s fee. The only fee award in it runs to the state agency: “If the secretary prevails on behalf of the employee, the court shall award a judgment to the agency in an amount equal to the cost of reasonable attorney fees for such action.”13 Nothing for a worker’s own lawyer. Fees on a federal overtime claim are mandatory.8 That is another reason the federal claim leads.
This matters if you are one of many people with the same job title. A federal overtime case is opt-in only: “No employee shall be a party plaintiff to any such action unless he gives his consent in writing to become such a party and such consent is filed in the court in which such action is brought.”8 Silence does not join you. You sign and you are in. See collective actions.
Kansas does have an opt-out class rule for state-law claims, where the court must tell class members “that the court will exclude from the class any member who requests exclusion”.15 But after September 2026 that route does not carry a federal overtime claim, and the state overtime statute it could carry reaches only employers outside federal law. For an overtime case, plan on opting in.
The federal clock is the one that usually matters. A federal overtime claim must be brought “within two years after the cause of action accrued, except that a cause of action arising out of a willful violation may be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrued”.16 Every week you wait, a week falls off the back end.
Kansas wage claims borrow from the general limitations statutes, and which one applies depends on how the claim is framed. Three years covers “an action upon a liability created by a statute other than a penalty or forfeiture.”17 Five years covers “an action upon any agreement, contract or promise in writing” — a contract claim, which is not the same thing as a wage-statute claim.17 Anyone who tells you Kansas wage claims simply get five years is skipping a step.
There is a third clock, and it is short. Kansas gives one year for “an action upon statutory penalty or forfeiture,”17 and the three-year statute carries its own cross-reference to that one-year rule.17 The Wage Payment Act calls its 1%-a-day award “a penalty”.11 Do not assume three years covers it. More on these deadlines.
“Kansas law recognizes the tort of retaliatory discharge when an employee is terminated for filing a wage claim under the Kansas Wage Payment Act.”18 The Kansas Supreme Court explained why: “We hold the KWPA embeds within its provisions a public policy of protecting wage earners’ rights to their unpaid wages and benefits.”18
Under the state minimum wage law, by contrast, retaliation is only a criminal fine — an employer who fires or discriminates against a worker for complaining “shall be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars ($250) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000).”19 That money does not go to you.
The federal remedy is the strong one: “employment, reinstatement, promotion, and the payment of wages lost and an additional equal amount as liquidated damages.”8 If discipline, a cut schedule or a termination followed your raising overtime, say so early. See retaliation protections.
You do not have to go to an agency first. Under the Wage Payment Act, “[a]ny proceeding by one or more employees to assert any claim arising under or pursuant to this act may be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction.”13 The state overtime statute says the same: such an action “may be maintained in any court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more employees for and in behalf of such employee or employees.”14 The administrative route exists if you want it — the agency investigates, a hearing follows under the Kansas Administrative Procedure Act, then judicial review.20 That is reasonable for one paycheck. It is not the path for a job title misclassified across a workforce.
And you do not need a courthouse in Wichita or Topeka. A worker’s wage claim does not have to be filed in the state where the work happened, and the court a case sits in does not decide which states’ wage laws it carries — one case routinely pleads several. Where you live is not a reason to let the clock run.
Aircraft assembly around Wichita, meatpacking and food processing, healthcare, oil and gas. The patterns repeat: hours trimmed at the edges of a shift, gowning and sanitizing before the clock starts, bonuses and shift differentials left out of the regular rate, a salaried “lead” working fifty-five hours for a flat figure. Each is unpaid overtime, and provable from records your employer is required by law to keep.
Siegel Law Group represents workers only — never employers.21 Jack Siegel grew up in a working-class family; his mother spent eighteen years at a call center before being pushed out. That is why the firm picks one side. Read about the firm and the cases.
Often, yes. The Kansas Department of Labor says it this way: “If they are salaried but not exempt, they are still entitled to overtime. Whether or not a person is exempt depends on what kind of work they do.”1 Your employer has to clear both the salary level — “not less than $684 per week”2 — and a duties test. Titles do not decide it.
Almost certainly only a federal one. The state wage law excludes from “employer” anyone “subject to the provisions of the fair labor standards act of 1938,” and its overtime section does not reach any employee covered by 29 U.S.C. § 207.34 The Court of Appeals confirmed it in September 2026: “When the Fair Labor Standards Act applies to an employee’s claim for unpaid overtime, the Kansas Minimum Wage and Maximum Hours Law does not apply.”6 Federal law gives you more anyway: 40 hours instead of 46, double damages, and a mandatory fee award.78
Not if your overtime right comes from federal law. As of September 25, 2026, “the Kansas Wage and Payment Act cannot be used as an enforcement mechanism for claims of unpaid overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”6 It still works for unpaid or late regular wages and final paychecks, and for overtime owed under Kansas law.611
Sometimes. Any “officer, manager, major shareholder or other person who has charge of the affairs of an employer” who knowingly permits a wage payment violation “may be deemed the employer for purposes of this act.”12 The Court of Appeals held in 2026 that this “is not limited to owners”.6
No. There is no daily overtime rule. The state agency’s own answer to that question is that “overtime is due once an employee has worked 40 hours within a week.”1 Breaks are not required either: “Breaks are not required under state or federal law.”1
Two years on a federal overtime claim, three if the violation was willful.16 Kansas claims run on different clocks — three years for a statutory liability, five for a written contract, and one year for a statutory penalty.17 Time only runs against you, so get it looked at now.
Every consultation is free and confidential, and the firm works on contingency — no fee unless we recover for you. Request a free case review, call (214) 790-4454, or email [email protected].
This page is general information about Kansas and federal wage law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Law current as of October 5, 2026.
This website contains attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Automated chat. Not legal advice, not a substitute for an attorney, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Send your job title and how you are paid — no documents, no detailed case facts. An inquiry does not by itself stop the firm from representing someone else in a related matter.
Attorney advertising. Jack L. Siegel of Siegel Law Group PLLC, Austin, Texas, is responsible for this content.
Before you start
We opened this box, not you. The notice above applies. Start when you are ready, or close it and nothing happens.
