Wage and Hour Violations

At its core, employment is a mutually beneficial exchange of time and labor for money. Your employer needs your labor, you need funds, and so an employment relationship ensues. It should be that simple, but there are times when employers try to take advantage of your time.

You deserve to be paid in full for the hours and time you spend at work. Predatory employers sometimes shirk their responsibilities to their employees by cheating them out of wages and hours. This is both immoral and illegal. If you believe that you are not being paid in full, then contact the Benowitz Law Corporation legal team today.

What is Wage Theft?

Wage theft refers to any time an employer fails to pay an employee what they rightfully earned and can take many forms.

These include, but are not limited to:

Failures to pay minimum wages or overtime wages at the correct legal rates
Failures to pay any wages at all for required work activities (e.g., security checks, covid tests, temperature checks, logging in and out of required computer systems)
Failures to pay premium wages when denied legally required meal or rest breaks are not provided at all or not timely provided
Failures to pay for legally required sick time
Failures to pay earned and accrued vacation wages when an employee quits or is terminated
Illegally deducting moneys from an employee’s wages for things like equipment damage
Failures to reimburse employees for expenses incurred because of their work (e.g., business use of a personal cellular phone or vehicle, utility and/or other costs from working from home)

These are all considered wage theft and the Benowitz Law Corporation can help you get the compensation that is rightfully yours.

As an employee, it is important to pay attention to what you earn versus what you are paid. Additionally, your ability to recognize subtle and predatory wage theft is absolutely vital. As an example, let’s say that you work a double shift at your job. Since you worked more than 8 hours in a given 24-hour period, you are entitled to time and a half pay for every hour over 8 that you worked. At the end of your shift, your employer lets you know that they are disappointed in your performance and do not believe that you gave it your all during your second shift and do not believe they got enough value out of your work. They let you know that they will not be paying you the full overtime amount. Criticism like this can lead to feelings of guilt and inadequacy – which is what the employer is banking on. This type of rationalization is actually considered wage theft, but the employer is hoping that their employee feels so guilty that they will not do anything about it.

What is Hours Theft?

Any work your employer asks you to conduct off the clock is considered hours theft. Sometimes it is obvious when an employer is engaging in hours theft (i.g., instructing employees not to clock in), other times it is more subtle (i.e. asking for one or two more ‘“favors” from an employee once he or she has clocked out). Hours theft is normally something that starts small and then snowballs into out-of-control situations.