Wage and Hour Violations

Wage and Hour Violations

An employer in California has an obligation to pay your wages in a timely fashion. They must have regular pay periods and make payroll in a timely fashion with checks that don't bounce. They must pay employees at least the federal minimum wage. If you are terminated, or quit, an employer must pay you your wages and unused vacation pay on your last day of work and under no circumstances no later than 72 hours thereafter. An employer may not engage in self help remedies of deducting monies that they believe they are owed from a final pay check. Employees denied these rights may be entitled to compensation for all hours worked, which they were not paid, plus penalties, interest and attorneys fees.

There are two types of employees in California exempt and non-exempt employees. The term salaried has no bearing on these definitions and is often misunderstood by employees. It is not whether you are paid a salary (an annual sum calculated by multiplying your hourly wage by the expected number of hours worked given a 40 hour anticipated work week) but whether you are classified as exempt or non exempt that matters.

An exempt employee is defined under various state and/or federal laws. Generally, it is someone with a special skill or license such as a lawyer, doctor, CPA, engineer, etc who is usually more highly compensated and works with limited supervision. Some assistants that assist the owner or most senior executives are exempt if they are paid at least a certain multiple of the minimum wage. Some employees may be only partially exempt depending on how much of their time is spent on exempt versus non exempt activities such as management versus production activities.

A non exempt employee is one which is generally lower skilled and/or who handles non management functions and is involved in general production activities. There are many intricate determinations that are required to analyze whether someone is exempt or not but, generally, the rank and file employees are non exempt, or partially non-exempt and management employees and professionals are more likely to be exempt.

Exempt employees do not receive the benefit of overtime compensation and other benefits provided to exempt employees for their exempt activities. Non-exempt employees are entitled to compensation for overtime hours and for extra compensation for missed lunches etc. when the employer has reason to know that this time is being used for legitimate work activities.

Employees have an obligation to be honest with their employers about hours worked. They can not hide the fact that they are working overtime form an employer and later sue claiming that they have been denied their rights. They must follow company procedures and use available time reporting systems to notify their employer that they are working overtime, through lunch, etc. An employer has an obligation to have a system in place to record time worked in excess of the standard eight hours per day, forty hours per week (when overtime kicks in). Employees must use the system to be entitled to claim overtime. An employee who hides their alleged overtime from an employer can not later claim entitlement to compensation for secreted hours worked.

Employers are to provide a pay stub with each paycheck outlining the pay received by the employee so that employees can make sure that they are being paid for the time that they have worked. Employees should check their pay checks and make sure that they are being paid appropriately each pay period. Any discrepancies should be immediately borough to the attention of the employer so that any mistakes can be immediately corrected.

It is unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee for demanding that they be paid overtime if they are non-exempt.

An employer may not condition final payment of wages that are owed on the signing of a release of the employee's rights to sue the employer. However, if additional compensation is paid to the employee beyond the monies owed for hours which the employer was aware of the employee working, in exchange for a release, that release is binding based on the presence of addition consideration in exchange for the release of rights.

The Dolan Law Firm has represented individuals who have been denied their rights to payment of their wages. If you believe that you have been treated unlawfully in the handling of your wages, contact us for a free case evaluation.