Many times an employer will require their employees to accomplish all of their work in a designated 7.5 hour workday. However, it is often impractical for an employee to be able to complete the required amount of work (whether labeled as a quota or metric) within the allotted time. The only way that the employee could possibly complete the requirements is to work off the clock and often overtime.

Often times that same employer will have a policy either prohibiting unapproved overtime or at least discourage overtime without prior approval. What happens if the employee is worried that they cannot meet the employer's expectations unless they work off the clock and do in fact work many hours of overtime. Is the employee ultimately entitled to overtime pay for those additional off the clock hours worked?

The answer is not that simple. The law states that an employer must pay an employee overtime for those hours worked in excess of 8 hours in a workday and/or 40 hours in a workweek where the employer has either actual or constructive knowledge that said employee is working those additional hours off the clock. If the employee can demonstrate that the employer had actual knowledge that said employee was working off the clock or should have known, then the employee might be entitled to compensation for all of the off the clock hours worked, together with various statutory penalties.