Should You Negotitate With Curent Eomployer on Pay When You Know You Are Underpay
In the x U.Due south. states with the highest populations, a full of 2.4 one thousand thousand workers lost out on $8 billion in annual earnings equally a result of violations of minimum wage laws, according to a 2017 report from the Economic Policy Found. This equates to effectually $3,300 annually for year-round workers, which is close to a quarter of earned wages for a minimum-wage worker.
Minimum-wage workers are not the only ones who experience wage theft as a upshot of employers violating federal labor laws. "There are many different means an employee may exist underpaid," according to William Tucker, a small concern chaser at Gehres Law Group.
Tucker explained employees are underpaid when employers don't provide proper payment for overtime; when employees aren't provided with meal breaks and rest periods; when employers don't provide required wage statements; and when workers are not paid final wages in a timely manner after leaving their jobs.
If you're an employee and y'all fear you're not paid properly, you have legal rights and should not be agape to raise the issue with your employer or take other steps to pursue a remedy.
"Many states have strong laws against retaliation or discrimination for making an oral or written complaint for wages owed," according to Darren Lipinsky, a senior trial attorney at Lipinsky Employment Lawyers. "Federal law besides protects confronting such discrimination or retaliation."
To help ensure your employee rights are existence respected, here are a few fundamental things to know about how federal labor laws piece of work to foreclose wage theft.
The Minimum Wage Can Vary Based on Where You Live and Work
Many professional workers have the option to negotiate salary when starting a job to ensure they receive a fair pay based on their skills. There are also specific rules that protect all workers, including those who don't take a lot of leverage in the marketplace to negotiate their wage. One of those rules relates to minimum wage.
I of the most bones rights of every worker is the right to exist paid at to the lowest degree the minimum wage. For many workers, the minimum wage is the federal minimum wage of $seven.25 hourly, according to the United State'due south Section of Labor.
In 2016, 701,000 workers anile 16 and over were paid the federal minimum wage, while an estimated 1.5 one thousand thousand workers were paid less than the federal minimum, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS). BLS explains many of the 1.five million workers paid under $7.25 hourly are not protected by minimum wage laws considering they fall into exemptions, similar rules assuasive some hand-harvesters to be paid under minimum wage.
Federal labor laws too allow for tipped workers to exist paid a lower minimum wage of $2.thirteen hourly, which is why information technology is so important to tip service providers an appropriate amount. However, if tipped workers don't actually make up the divergence betwixt $2.thirteen and $7.25 with their tips received, their employer will take to pay more. Information technology is the responsibility of employers to make sure they are paying the deviation if tips don't add upwardly to at least minimum wage. Nevertheless, tipped workers should track their tips to ensure they are getting paid fairly and should talk with an employer if their wages fall short.
Tipped workers aren't the but ones subject to a different minimum wage rule than the federal requirement of $7.25 per hour. Some workers are covered by states and local laws imposing higher wages than this federal minimum.
In California, for instance, employers with 25 or fewer employees must pay a minimum wage of $ten.50 hourly as of 2018, and employers with more than 25 employees must pay at least $11 hourly. This nautical chart from Kiplinger shows minimum wage in each state relative to the federal wage in 2017.
The Rules for Overtime Pay
Hourly employees and some salaried workers (workers paid a set amount rather than an hourly wage) generally must non just exist paid at least the minimum wage, but also be paid overtime once they exceed a certain number of hours of piece of work per week.
Co-ordinate to the Section of Labor, employees must receive overtime pay once they have worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. A workweek does not have to match upward with a week, as whatsoever seven consecutive 24-hr periods can be considered a workweek.
Employees must be paid overtime at a rate equal to at to the lowest degree fourth dimension and half their regular hourly wage. If a worker earns $10 per hour, this means his overtime wage would demand to be at to the lowest degree $15 hourly ($ten * 1.five). Federal law does not require overtime just because workers are made to come up to work on weekends or holidays, unless working on these days pushes the employee over the 40-hour threshold.
Some states require overtime in more than situations than federal labor laws. For case, in California, employees are not just entitled to overtime if they piece of work more than 40 hours per week. They are also entitled to overtime if they work more than than 8 hours in a unmarried day or if they piece of work for 7 days in a row.
Some Workers Are Exempt From Overtime Rules
Both land and federal laws, nevertheless, exempt some workers from existence entitled to overtime. Workers who may be exempt include outside sales employees, workers in calculator-related occupations, executive employees, administrative employees and professional employees. The FLSA overtime pay reckoner advisor allows employers and employees to input data most a position to determine if a worker is potentially exempt.
By and large, if workers make a bacon of at least $455 weekly and their job duties mean they fall inside i of the above-listed categories of exempt workers, an employer is not required to pay overtime, even if they piece of work over twoscore hours weekly.
Job titles alone do not brand workers exempt; the key is whether the workers meet the criteria for beingness a professional worker, authoritative employee or other exempt employee. The specific criteria vary depending on your job. For example, for a worker to exist exempt based on being an executive employee:
- The worker must regularly supervise at least 2 other employees
- Management must be the worker'southward primary obligation
- The worker must have input into the status of the employees being supervised, such as input into whether to fire or promote an employee
Unfortunately, there is a big trouble with employers incorrectly classifying workers as exempt who shouldn't be. Employers may allocate workers as "professionals" and pay them a salary to avert paying overtime the employees would receive if they were hourly workers.
If an employee is incorrectly classified equally exempt and non paid overtime, that employee can take action to become back pay that is owed.
The Rules for Worker Pay
In addition to overtime rules and minimum wage rules, at that place are also other federal labor laws that protect employee rights. For case:
- Yous must be paid for all time worked. This includes time spent taking protective gear off and on, too as all fourth dimension you are required to exist on the employer'due south premises or on duty.
- Uniforms and other items provided by an employer aren't wages.An employer cannot include the costs of a compatible — or other items provided primarily for the employer'southward benefit — equally part of wages. If an employer requires workers to pay for uniforms or other materials, the employer is in violation of labor laws if these costs cause wages to fall beneath the minimum. Employees can brand workers buy their own uniforms as long every bit doing so would not reduce their pay to below minimum wage.
- Employers cannot dock wages:An employer cannot cause a worker's wages to fall below minimum wage past deducting losses from an employee'due south wages, such as taking money from a cashier'southward paycheck if the drawer is short.
Some states also require employers to pay for meal breaks or other rest periods. For case, in California, workers are entitled to 10 minutes of paid residuum for every iv hours worked. You tin find your state rules for rest breaks on the website of the Department of Labor. Some states also require employers to provide a last paycheck right abroad for departing workers, but the Section of Labor indicates this is not a federal requirement.
What Can You Practise to Protect Your Employee Rights if You lot're Underpaid?
While there are many employee rights guaranteed under federal labor laws, these rules can be disruptive. Many workers aren't fully aware of what to practice if their employer is violating the rules.
Make a Written Complaint
Lipinsky recommends submitting a complaint in writing to your human resource department or to someone with authorisation to handle the problem inside your organization. He refers to this as "establishing proof of the complaint," and recommends the written complaint also "document any past oral complaints of wage theft that have unsuccessfully been fabricated."
Document Any Attempts at Retaliation Your Employer Makes
Employers are not immune to retaliate against you for exercising your employee rights in connection with unpaid wages. As Lipinsky explains: "Almost courts take held that these laws [federal and state labor laws] protect those employees who brand internal complaints, not only those employees who complain to a government bureau." If your employer takes adverse action after you make a complaint, document your employer'due south actions.
File a Complaint With the Department of Labor
If the company fails to respond to an internal complaint or retaliates against a worker for making one, the next step Lipinsky recommends is to file a complaint with the state or federal Section of Labor or other advisable agency. Both Tucker and Lipinsky indicate that state or federal labor departments can provide advice and will sometimes conduct an investigation and take enforcement action. Tucker advises going in person to the office near you lot to brand your complaint and get help. You can enter your zippo code on the Section of Labor website to observe workforce services in your expanse.
Contacting an attorney is also an choice, just Tucker warns information technology can sometimes exist difficult to discover a lawyer willing to take a instance based on underpaid wages. "Information technology will depend on how proficient a case the employee appears to have and the value of the example," Tucker says. "In some instances, the case may be a adept one, but the value is not high enough for an attorney to take it on."
If your employer underpaid you by a pocket-sized amount, similar $100, it would non be worth an chaser's fourth dimension to take the case. Lipinsky says that working with an attorney could be "particularly useful when a company-wide practice of wage theft has negatively affected multiple employees." An chaser could assist those workers come together to brand a articulation complaint.
For smaller claims, Tucker suggests pocket-sized claims court as an selection and indicates information technology may be possible for an employee to collect the full amount owed in small claims courtroom if the employee's example has merit.
Whether y'all decide to talk with a lawyer, become to small claims court, reach out to a labor department or pursue some other legal remedy, the primal is to know your employee rights and to stand up up for yourself if your employer fails to pay you the wages that you lot deserve.
This article was originally published on Student Loan Hero. Information technology is reprinted with permission.
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Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/underpaid-employee-rights-violated/
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