<prompt> Human: Edit: Thanks for clearing that up. Since she is volunteering her time for work, its not unpaid overtime, and she is not due any compensation. The fact that her job is hot garbage is probably a topic for a different sub. :---My wife works from home as an hourly data processor in Louisiana. She is given what probably amounts to 10 hours worth of work every day and is expected to complete it in 8 hours. To accomplish this, she works through her 30-minute lunch break probably 80 of the time, and she logs out somewhere between 5:15 and 6:00 instead of 5:00 as scheduled. Any requests for compensation are reprimanded as unapproved overtime, though I dont think shes had any explicit denials. But the hostile responses make her hesitant to request or report it at all. She seems to think that because she was not given prior approval to work over 8 hours per day, that shes volunteering her personal time in order to make her next days work easier, but I disagree and think shes due full compensation, plus 1.5x for anything over 40.FLSA seems to indicate that her after-hours work is due, but its a little fuzzier on the lunch period. It sounds like she should be compensated for any time during which she must work, even if her employer calls it a break. But shes not being explicitly asked to work overtime, so Im not sure what to make of it.Granted, if it were me, I would work the 8 hours and whatever didnt get done would go in the fuck it pile, but we dont see eye-to-eye on the situation. Despite the fact that her job is low-paying 14hour, objectively terrible, and shes treated like crap, shes terrified of losing it and having to find something new where shell have to get up and get dressed to go to an office.So, on to the questions:1. Does the lunchtime and after-hours work both count as unpaid overtime?2. What options does she have that dont risk her job?---tl;dr: My wife works through lunch and after hours almost every day, is she due compensation?Assistant: By what measure is she being given 10 hours worth of work to do each day? I understand it might take her 10 hours to do it, but are there metrics published that show the amount of work the average employee gets done in an 8 hour period?Since your wife has been told that overtime is unapproved, then she needs to stop working after 8 hours. That being said, its really going to be up to the employer if its acceptable that 20 of her work goes uncompleted each day. Without more information, theres no way for us to know whether this is an employer whos over-assigning work with the hope that employees will work off the clock for them, or if your wife just isnt able to meet the productivity expected of her.Edit: Theres also another possibility. Its quite possible that there was a time when your wife was assigned a lot of work due to peak season or whatever, and because she managed to get it done in 8 hours even if she worked 10 hours, she reported 8, they have raised their expectations of the amount of work she can do. In production type jobs like data entry, it is in the best interests of the employer to squeeze as much work out of an employee in the least amount of time possible. If your wife has been giving the impression that shes getting 10 hours worth of work done in 8 hours, then they are going to expect this level of performance indefinitely.Your wife needs to sit down with her boss and let him know that shes been working 10 hours a day to meet their goals, and since they have denied her overtime she will be only working her 8 hours a day. There is a good possibility she might have to find another job, though. You also might have to look into how much time your wife is spending working vs how much time shes spending doing other things. Does she get distracted by kids? Have to run errands during the day? Play on Facebook? Does she do anything during her shift that she wouldnt be doing if she were sitting in an office cubicle?If shes slated to work 8 hours, but is taking a bunch of breaks throughout the day to do things around the house and such, then she may have to work for a longer period to equate to 8 hours of straight work.Human: You also might have to look into how much time your wife is spending working vs how much time shes spending doing other things. From everything I have witnessed, she is remarkably on-task....because she managed to get it done in 8 hours, they have raised their expectations of the amount of work she can do. This is what I expect is the case. Except now theyre in another crunch where theyre overloading everyone, but she was already overloaded... its a vicious cycle.  <response>: Does she communicate at all with other employees? If so, find out if they are finishing their work everyday. 