Employers are required to pay employees for the full number of hours worked minus any applicable and legal rest or meal breaks where you were not clocked in. If your employer is clocking you out for hours you worked and paying you less than you are legally entitled to, you should contact an employment law attorney right away.

Employers are required to pay overtime pay to hourly employees who work 40 hours or more in a single week. Employees who are on salary are not entitled to overtime hours.

A hostile work environment is a workplace where teasing or banter becomes offensive, intimidating or threatening to employees within a protected class. For example, if all women are harassed or discriminated against while male employees are not – there is a hostile environment for women. If the workplace is hostile in general, such as an employer who is unkind to everyone, then it may not constitute a hostile work environment for legal purposes.

There is a fine line between an adverse employment action and discrimination. The best way to recognize discrimination is to realize exactly what that is. Discrimination is adverse employment actions based on an employee’s protected class, meaning race, gender, age, disability or religion. Even though someone degrading your favorite sports team is frustrating, it is not a protected class, and therefore is not legally discrimination.

Employers are legally required to provide reasonable accommodation to an employee who is disabled. The accommodation must be reasonable and must not put undue hardship on the employer. A reasonable accommodation is one that makes a change in the workplace or position that assists the employee in his or her duties. Examples include adding wheelchair ramps, permitting a service animal in the workplace, or installing a screen reader.