The overtime laws provide remedies to those who have been illegally deprived of their pay. First, if a violation is established, you will be paid any overtime pay or regular pay that is due. Some laws allow you to recover as much as six years of lost pay while other laws limit it to three years of lost pay. In addition to the recovery of lost pay, you can also recover a penalty. These penalties vary in size but can equal the amount of unpaid overtime. For example, if you are owed $20,000 in overtime, the court could impose a penalty of $20,000 and you would recover a total of $40,000. To summarize, the basic solution to overtime violations is the recovery of all unpaid overtime or regular pay and a penalty.