FLSA True-Up: When Your Employer Owes Retroactive Overtime Pay

The Short Answer

An FLSA true-up is a retroactive overtime adjustment. If you earned a bonus or commission that covers a period when you worked overtime, your employer must go back, recalculate your regular rate of pay for those weeks, and pay you the extra half-time premium you were owed. Many payroll systems miss this — and the difference is real money.

Why a True-Up Happens

Overtime is based on your regular rate, which includes most bonuses and commissions — not just your hourly wage. The problem is timing: a quarterly bonus or monthly commission often arrives *after* the workweeks it covers are already paid.

The Department of Labor's rule is simple: when the bonus is paid later, the employer must allocate it back to the workweeks it was earned in, recompute the regular rate for each overtime week, and pay the additional overtime premium. That catch-up payment is the true-up.

A Worked Example

You earn $20/hour and worked 48 hours in a week during Q1. You were paid overtime at $30/hour (1.5 × $20), so the week paid $1,160.

In April, a $480 quarterly bonus arrives covering 12 weeks — $40 per week. That week's true regular rate was:

• Straight-time pay: 48 × $20 = $960, plus $40 bonus = $1,000
• True regular rate: $1,000 ÷ 48 = $20.83/hour
• Extra premium owed: 8 OT hours × ($20.83 − $20) × 0.5 = $3.33

Your employer owes you $3.33 for that week. Small per week — but across a 12-week quarter with regular overtime, true-ups commonly reach $40–$150 per employee, and far more for large commissions.

When You Should Expect One

• A quarterly or annual bonus tied to production, attendance, or performance
• Commissions calculated and paid after the workweeks they cover
• A retroactive raise applied to weeks that included overtime
• Shift differentials that were entered late or corrected

Discretionary bonuses (a genuine surprise gift) are excluded from the regular rate and do not trigger a true-up. Promised or formula-based bonuses almost always do.

What To Do If You Never Got One

• . Find the bonus period. Note which workweeks the bonus or commission covered and which of those weeks had more than 40 hours.
• . Ask payroll in writing. A simple question — "Was the Q2 bonus allocated back into my regular rate for overtime weeks?" — often resolves it.
• . Escalate if needed. If the answer is no and nothing changes, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division or your state labor office. Federal law generally lets you recover up to two years of unpaid overtime (three if willful).

Check Your Own Numbers

• Overtime Paycheck Calculator — see what a week with a bonus should have paid
• Weekly Overtime Calculator — rebuild any week hour by hour
• How bonuses change your overtime rate — the regular-rate rules in detail
• Overtime Pay Guide in the USA — the full federal and state picture

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a true-up the same as back pay?

A true-up is one type of back pay — specifically the retroactive overtime premium owed when a later bonus or commission raises your regular rate for past weeks. Back pay is the broader term for any wages owed.

Does a small bonus really require a true-up?

Yes. The rule has no minimum size. If a nondiscretionary bonus covers a workweek with overtime, the regular rate must be recalculated for that week, even if the difference is a few dollars.

How far back can a true-up claim go?

Under the FLSA you can generally recover unpaid overtime for two years back, or three years if the violation was willful. State laws sometimes allow longer.

Do salaried non-exempt employees get true-ups too?

Yes. If you're salaried but entitled to overtime, a bonus covering weeks you worked overtime raises your regular rate the same way, and the extra premium is owed.