Employers who are inclined to steal wages from their employees and commit other employment law violations count on the fact that the vast majority of workers simply trust their employers to “do the right thing” or don’t know their rights.
To protect yourself from employment abuses, it helps to have a working understanding of wage and hour violations. Here are some of the most common ways problems manifest:
Misclassification
If you’re an independent contractor, why does your employer seem to control everything about your schedule and the way you do your job? Employers frequently misclassify workers as independent contractors because that gets them out of paying overtime, benefits, payroll taxes and workers’ compensation insurance premiums.
Unpaid, extra work
There’s nothing illegal about an employer asking you to come in early for your shift or stay late to help out – so long as they pay you for your time. If they ask you to work through your lunch breaks (while clocked out) or “take one for the team” by working off the clock, come into the office for unpaid training sessions or take video conferences during your off hours without pay, that’s wage theft.
Overtime miscalculations
Have you been told you weren’t eligible for overtime pay because the overtime wasn’t “authorized?” That’s untrue, but employers frequently engage in this kind of behavior to short their employees. In addition, overtime has to be calculated differently depending on whether you receive hourly wages, a salary, do piece work or get nondiscretionary bonuses. An employer can sometimes shave off a significant amount of your earnings by purposefully miscalculating what you are owed.
If you believe that your employer is guilty of wage theft and it’s more than an honest mistake, you may have no other option than to seek legal guidance. Understanding more about your rights always makes it easier to hold a deceitful employer accountable for their actions.