Receipts.law
Evidence · 3 min read

Keep a before-and-after log of your hours and pay

When your hours get cut after you speak up, the harm is real — but it only becomes persuasive when it's measured and dated. The good news: the numbers you need are already on your pay stubs.

This is general practical guidance, not legal advice. This is about recording what happened, not calculating what you're owed — that's a lawyer's job.

"They retaliated against me" is an argument. "I averaged 49 hours and about $1,330 a pay period for two years, and within weeks of my complaint that dropped to roughly two short shifts a month" is a fact pattern — built entirely from your own pay records, and timed to your complaint. Here's how to build it.

1. Gather every pay stub you can. Most states give you a right to your pay records — keep every stub, and request any you're missing. Each one is the employer's own statement of your hours and gross pay for that period, which makes it hard for them to dispute later.
2. Build one simple table. You don't need anything fancy — a note or spreadsheet with three columns:
Pay period (dates)Hours workedGross pay
e.g., 11/02 – 11/1549.0$1,332
e.g., 12/28 – 01/10~12$777
Fill it straight from the stubs. Don't estimate where you have a real number.
3. Mark the date you spoke up. Draw a line in the table at your complaint / report / filing. Now the "before" and "after" are visible at a glance — and so is the timing. A drop that starts within days or weeks of your protected activity is itself meaningful (the proximity is part of what a retaliation claim looks at).
4. Keep it current — the harm isn't static. Every pay period the suppression continues adds to the picture. Update the log each time you're paid. A running, dated record also quietly rebuts "it was just one slow month."

One important boundary

Record the actual numbers — hours and dollars off the stubs. Resist the urge to compute "what they owe me," project big future losses, or run a damages total. Those calculations depend on legal rules (caps, offsets, mitigation, which claims apply) and are easy to get wrong in a way that hurts your credibility. Your job is the clean, true record; the valuation is the attorney's. The most powerful version of this is always the plain before-and-after, in the employer's own figures.

Build the before-and-after automatically

Receipts.law captures your pay periods and the date you spoke up, and lays out the timeline an attorney needs — without overstating anything.

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Disclaimer: Receipts.law is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. The above is general practical guidance, not legal counsel for your situation. What you can recover and how it's calculated vary by claim and state — only a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction can evaluate your case.