Wages and Hours

"I was not paid properly"

You have the right to be paid for all of the hours that you work.

The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that migrant workers like you are paid properly and for all the hours you worked.

If you believe your employer has not paid you the wages you are owed, you may contact the Wage & Hour Division by telephone: 1-866-487-9243.

If you are working as part of the H-2A or H-2B visa program, or subject to the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act ("MSPA"), your employer must provide you a written document in a language you understand describing the terms of your job. This document should include information about your wage rate and all deductions that the employer will make from your paycheck.

Your employer must pay you the wages it owes you on time. If you are working as part of the H-2A or H-2B visa program, or subject to the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act ("MSPA"), your employer must give you an itemized, written statement of earnings (pay stub) when they pay you.

Employers must generally provide all tools, supplies, and equipment necessary to perform your job at no cost to you.

You may file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) by calling the telephone number: 1-866-487-9243. Your complaint may result in an investigation of the employer to determine compliance with the applicable law(s).

If you are owed back wages, the Wage and Hour Division will collect those back wages and make efforts to locate you. You can also check if the WHD has collected those back wages by visiting the Workers Owed Wages site or calling 1-866-487-9243 with questions.

If you are back in your home country, but believe you may be owed wages earned from your work in the United States, and you want to check if those wages have been collected by the Wage and Hour Division, visit the Workers Owed Wages site, or call our toll-free hotline at 1-866-487-9243 (1-866-4-USWAGE). The database is available in Spanish and questions can be answered in over 200 languages regardless of immigration status.

If you are in Mexico, the Wage and Hour Division and Mexico's Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) have launched the U.S.-Mexico Return of Migrant Wages Pilot Program to help locate workers in Mexico that may be owed wages.

To see if you're owed back wages, call @STPS_mx at +52-55-3067-3028 or email them at recuperacionsalariosh2a@cloud.stps.gob.mx.