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Minimum Wage

Are Employers Cheating Workers With Fee-Based Payroll Cards?

Labor costs are usually the largest expense for any company, and employers are always looking for ways to cut back in this area. Payroll processing is one method to lower their fixed overhead costs – and that has been a big factor in the rise of so-called payroll debit cards.

Instead of cutting paper checks or even using direct deposit, employers are issuing workers these payroll debit cards and transferring wages to them on payday.

Payroll Cards, Fees, and the Minimum Wage

The problem is that many of these payroll cards have fees that workers must pay to access the money stored on them – money they have rightfully earned as wages. According to The New York Times, those fees are steep. One such card charges $1.75 each time an employee withdraws cash from an ATM. Another has an “inactivity fee” of $7 if an employee does not use the card often enough.

For a worker earning minimum wage – and perhaps working several jobs just to make ends meet – these fees can quickly add up and eat into their take-home pay. In fact, it might even mean they are actually earning less than minimum wage after paying all of these fees. By using fee-based payroll debit cards, employers are essentially taking money from their employees’ pockets.

Because this is so new, there are not many laws that expressly forbid the practice. However, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does stipulate that hourly employees must be paid at least a minimum wage – and time-and-a-half if they work overtime – and that is also the case for many state employment statutes. If the fees charged by payroll debit cards mean an employee is taking home less than minimum wage, this could be in violation of the FLSA and state law.

Employee Lawsuits Are Calling Out Payroll Card Issues

Some employees are fighting back against this practice. Some McDonald’s franchises have faced lawsuits from workers. Employees have also sued Dave & Buster’s. In March 2016, a Pennsylvania judge found the practice to be illegal in that state.

There is also evidence that state and local governments, as well as some agencies like the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), are scrutinizing this new practice. There is legislation pending in some states, and the CFPB has also warned employers that they cannot make payroll debit cards mandatory.

If your employer wants to pay you with a fee-based payroll debit card, you should know your rights. Depending on where you live, you may not have to accept this form of compensation. And, the fees charged should not mean you end up receiving less than minimum wage for your work.

You may also be able to bring a lawsuit to recover any fees you may have paid for using a payroll debit card to receive your wages. Your first step should be to consult with an experienced employment litigator who can discuss your situation.

Companies with In-House Call Centers May Perpetuate Wage and Overtime Abuse

For many years, even decades, large companies have tried to cut costs by taking once internal functions and paying other companies to handle those operations instead. Using business process outsourcers and outside call centers, for example, became very common. Today, however, the trend is reversing.

Call Center “Insourcing”

Driven by customer complaints of poor service, many of the same companies who outsourced their call centers have responded by bringing them back in-house. For some, this “insourcing” is a way to demonstrate that they value their customer relationships enough to ensure good, consistent service.

Zappos and 1-800-GOT-JUNK are both famous for this and use it as a way to differentiate themselves from competitors. Hotel chains like Hilton, some airlines, and even Xerox have all made the move back to in-house call centers.

Even though those jobs are now handled by a company’s own personnel, however, does not mean that the wage and overtime abuse that plagues the outsourced call center industry has gone away. In many cases it has just continued, now taking place under the employer’s own roof.

Call Center Wage Theft & Wage Abuse

Just like any other employee in a company, call center workers are protected by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the FLSA, they must be paid at least minimum wage as well as overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. This is the case whether they work in an office or from home.

Too often, the wage and overtime theft that prompted the U.S. Department of Labor to issue a warning about the call center industry continues when that work is brought in-house. Most often it involves not paying workers for time spent on essential tasks performed before, after, and even during their shifts, including:

  • Booting up computers, logging into networks and launching applications before starting work
  • Closing out applications, logging off networks and shutting down computers after clocking out
  • Downloading and reading company directives and other work-related information
  • Reading email before and after work
  • Not counting time spent dealing with technical support, when systems go down or computers are disconnected from the network, towards hours worked

Unpaid Overtime

For many call center workers, these tasks can add up — sometimes 30 minutes or more per shift. Since many workers spend more than 40 hours a week at their jobs, this could also mean they are owed not only regular wages but also overtime at time-and-a-half.

Call center work is demanding and employees often put in long hours. Whether they work for an outsourced provider or in-house for a company, agents deserve to be paid everything they are owed.

Home-Based Call Center Employees at Risk for Wage Theft

To cut costs, many call center companies now employ agents who work from home. While it’s perfectly fine to save money on office space, those telecommuting employees must still be paid at least the minimum wage, as well as overtime. This is mandated by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Unfortunately, some call centers and business process outsourcing companies are guilty of withholding wages and overtime pay from home-based telephone agents and representatives.

How Do Call Centers Violate the FLSA

Kelly Services, Tech USA, Teleperformance, Concentrix, and Signia Marketing, have all faced accusations they violated the FLSA and withheld wages, overtime, or both from at-home agents. Many have paid out millions in settlements to the employees they cheated.

Some of these violations happen when agents are required to perform certain tasks before or after they officially clock in, or are not compensated for time spent dealing with administrative matters. This includes:

  • Starting up their computers, signing on to applications and downloading work instructions
  • Shutting down applications and computers after ending their shifts
  • Reading work-related emails before and after their shifts
  • Attending team meetings before or after their shifts
  • Waiting on hold with technical support when disconnected from computer systems and networks

In some cases, agents can spend 30 minutes or more of unpaid time per shift on these tasks and issues. These same employees might also face pressure to not record all the hours they work, or to work off the clock.

Withholding Overtime from At-Home Call Center Reps

Along with forcing at-home agents to underreport their hours, some call centers may also try to avoid paying them overtime. This goes hand-in-hand with pressuring employees to work before or after they officially clock in. That unreported time would frequently count as overtime if properly recorded, as agents often work more than 40 hours a week.

Many employers also attempt to convince at-home employees that the time spent starting up and logging into computers is equivalent to their normal commute time if they had to drive to an office—often called a “virtual commute.”  Such an explanation should be a red flag for employees.

Unlawfully Misclassifying Workers As Exempt from Overtime

To duck paying overtime, employers may also give an agent a title that makes it sound like he or she has the duties of a supervisor or manager when, in fact, he or she performs the same tasks as an hourly worker (e.g., Team Lead). This is done so the employer can classify the worker as being exempt from overtime, and violates the FLSA if the employee’s duties are not truly those of a manager or supervisor.

Employing agents who work from home may save call center companies the cost of leasing office space, but they should not also be picking the pockets of those at-home employees. Just because a worker is at home does not mean he or she falls outside the scope of the FLSA.

Home-based call center agents must be paid at least the minimum wage and any applicable overtime. Otherwise, their employers must be held accountable for wage theft and abuse.

Call Center Workers Frequently Robbed of Overtime Pay

Call center agents have demanding jobs that frequently require putting in many extra hours. Unfortunately, their employers often cheat those same employees out of their rightful overtime pay.

Wage abuse, particularly unpaid overtime, is rampant in the call center industry. This is a violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It is so common the U.S. Department of Labor issued a warning on illegal pay practices targeting call center workers.

Examples of Call Center Wage Theft

There have been reports, for example, that Yelp! is withholding overtime pay from its sales agents. Similar claims have been made against Concentrix, Teleperformance, Huntington Bank, Minacs, Auto Club, Ameridial, Bank of America, and others. In 2016, Sutherland Global Services paid $1.075 million to settle an unpaid overtime lawsuit brought by its call center employees.

The main way employers avoid paying call center workers overtime is by requiring them to perform duties before, after, or even during their shift, which can include:

  • Starting up their computers and logging into the programs they need to do their work
  • Closing out of applications and shutting down computers at the end of a shift
  • Downloading work instructions
  • Reading work-related emails before or after a shift
  • Being made to clock out during a shift when dealing with technical support if disconnected from computer systems and networks

These unpaid tasks can quickly add up to as much as 30 minutes per shift for some call center workers. Agents also frequently face pressure to not report all the hours they have worked or to work off the clock.

Misclassification & Off-the-Clock Work

The result is many call center employees may be putting in far more than 40 hours a week but are not being paid overtime by their employers, a direct violation of wage and hour laws.

Some employers also use job titles to cheat call center agents out of overtime. They may give them titles that sound like the employee is a supervisor or manager, when their actual duties are no different from those of an hourly worker. This is done in an attempt to declare the agent exempt from overtime, and violates the FLSA if the worker does not have a managerial job.

Call center employees deserve to be paid for putting in long hours that take them away from their families and cut into personal time. Anything less is overtime theft under the FLSA.