Arcadia Care Unpaid Wages Lawsuit Investigation: Was Your Overtime Rate Miscalculated?
Last Updated on May 22, 2025
At A Glance
- This Alert Affects:
- Hourly employees, including certified nursing assistants (CNAs), who worked for Arcadia Care in the past three years and believe they may not have been paid properly.
- What’s Going On?
- Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether Arcadia Care is properly calculating workers’ overtime rates and paying employees for all time spent working, specifically for meal breaks that are afforded but not taken.
- How Could an Unpaid Overtime Lawsuit Help?
- A lawsuit could help employees recover money for any miscalculated overtime pay and/or unpaid meal breaks that were worked through.
- What You Can Do
- If you worked for Arcadia Care within the past three years and suspect you may not have been paid properly, fill out the form on this page to learn more about the investigation and what you can do.
- Could I Get Fired for Speaking Up?
- Federal law strictly prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who exercise their legal rights.
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are investigating whether a class action lawsuit can be filed against Arcadia Care over concerns some hourly employees may not have been paid properly, including for their overtime hours.
As part of their investigation, they’re looking to hear from hourly employees of the Illinois-based care provider who within the past three years:
- Were not paid for time spent working through meal breaks; and/or
- Did not have extra shift bonuses, shift differentials and other non-discretionary pay factored into their overtime pay rate.
If you’re a current or former hourly employee of Arcadia Care and believe you may not have been paid properly, fill out the form on this page to learn more about the investigation. After you get in touch, an attorney or legal representative may reach out to you directly. It costs nothing to fill out the form or to speak to someone about your rights.
How Should Overtime Rates Be Calculated?
To determine how much an employee’s overtime rate should be, their regular rate of pay must first be calculated. The regular rate is explained by an overtime calculator advisor provided by the U.S. Department of Labor as follows:
“The regular rate is the average hourly rate calculated by dividing the total pay for employment (except the statutory exclusions) in any workweek by the total number of hours actually worked.”
In the simplest example, the regular rate of pay for an employee who is paid $25 per hour—and receives no other form of compensation during the workweek such as an extra payment for working undesirable shifts—would be $25, therefore making their time-and-a-half overtime rate $37.50.
It should be noted, however, that “non-discretionary” bonuses—typically standing offers that are tied to a specific expectation, metric or benchmark and help incentivize better performance in the workplace—must be included in an employee’s “regular” rate of pay. Examples of non-discretionary bonuses may include:
- Attendance bonuses
- Safety bonuses
- Bonuses for quality or accuracy of work
- Bonuses announced to employees to induce them to work more efficiently
- Profitability bonuses
These bonuses are “non-discretionary” because employees know about and expect them.
With regard to Arcadia Care, attorneys are investigating whether extra shift bonuses, shift differentials and other non-discretionary pay are being factored in when determining hourly, non-exempt employees’ regular rates for purposes of calculating overtime pay. Failure to include non-discretionary bonuses when establishing overtime pay rates can cause employees to be underpaid in violation of the law.
Should I Be Paid for Meal Breaks?
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), bona fide meal breaks of at least 30 minutes do not count as work time and are unpaid. During an unpaid meal break, however, the employee must be “completely relieved from duty,” meaning they cannot be required to perform any tasks while on their meal break. If an employee works during their break, they must be paid for their time worked.
For instance, a lawsuit filed against a children’s hospital in September 2022 claimed that 30-minute meal breaks were automatically deducted from employees’ hours even though they were often “too busy with work” to take full, uninterrupted breaks. The plaintiff, who worked at the hospital as a phlebotomist, said there was no policy or procedure to record missed, shortened or interrupted meal breaks, causing many hospital employees to be underpaid, including for overtime hours.
Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are now investigating whether CNAs and other hourly employees at Arcadia Care are being paid when working through their meal breaks.
How Could an Unpaid Wages Lawsuit Help?
If filed and successful, a lawsuit could help employees recover money for any miscalculated overtime pay and meal breaks that were worked through but not compensated. It could also force the healthcare provider to change any pay practices found to be in violation of the law.
Have you worked for Arcadia Care in the past three years? Do you believe your overtime pay was miscalculated? If so, fill out the form on this page to get in touch and learn more. Federal law strictly prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who exercise their legal rights.
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