The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, Illinois Minimum Wage Law, Wisconsin Hours of Work and Overtime Law and similar overtime statutes in other states require employers to pay most workers overtime premium wages for all hours worked over 40 in a single workweek.  However, many employers either ignore the overtime requirement or treat workers as “exempt” from overtime even when no exemption applies. Workers who are denied mandated overtime wages may be entitled to recover all of their unpaid overtime wages, an additional amount equal to the unpaid wages as “liquidated damages” under the Fair Labor Standards Act and additional penalties of 2% per month for each month of non-payment under Illinois law.