Employment & Unpaid Wages

The Department of Labor estimates that up to 80% of employers violate the FLSA, whether through ignorance or deliberate strategy.

These violations take many forms, including failing to pay overtime, allowing managers to skim off the top of tipped employees’ tip pools, misclassifying employees as exempt, requiring employees to work off the clock, altering time cards, or employing other illegal strategies.

If you as an employee have been improperly paid by your boss, you can go back up to three years to recover unpaid overtime, penalties, and interest.

• Are you classified as an independent contractor but in reality work as an employee, under the direct control of a company?
• Are you a tipped employee whose tips plus hourly pay do not add up to minimum wage?
• Are you required to come early or stay late to perform tasks off the clock (i.e., prep work, closing out cash drawer, clean up, uniform change, mandatory meetings)?
• Are you “on call” during an unpaid lunch hour?
• Have you been told not to report some or all overtime hours worked?
• Are you paid a salary and classified as “exempt” but spend most of your time answering phones, performing cleaning tasks, or doing other non-managerial work?
• Are you classified as a salaried employee but paid less than $455 per week?
• Does your employer ask you to run errands on your way to or from work?
• Does your employer automatically deduct a break from your time card, whether or not you actually take it?
• Are you asked to take work home to meet a deadline?
• Has your employer deducted from your pay for tools used for work, damages to the employer’s property, or cash register shortages?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a claim for unpaid wages against your employer. If you feel that you are being unfairly paid, call us for a free case evaluation.