Owed Unpaid Wages?

Information for workers owed unpaid wages.

Wage Theft

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.

Employers Who Pay Overtime with Gift Cards May Be Breaking the Law

When employees work overtime, they are often sacrificing precious time they could be spending with friends and family or on leisure activities. In return, they expect to be compensated for that sacrifice and earn time-and-a-half if they work more than 40 hours in a week.

It’s also the law under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as well as the employment statutes of many states.

How Compensating Workers with Gift Cards May Be Illegal

For employers, overtime is often essential to running their business – but it is also expensive. This is why some can be tempted to cut those costs wherever possible.

Sometimes, for example, employers will give workers gift cards instead of paying the full amount of the overtime they are owed. This is illegal and violates both the FLSA as well as employment laws in many states.

A former employee of Fuyao Glass recently sued the Dayton, Ohio company after she was given a $50 gift card instead of being paid overtime for working over a Thanksgiving weekend. In her class action lawsuit, Julia Staggs alleges employees were promised time-and-a-half to convince them to work during the holiday weekend – but only received the gift card.

Employers may get an additional windfall – at the expense of their employees – when they purpose gift cards in bulk at a discount from resellers and companies that provide employee rewards to mark length-of-service anniversaries. Others, particularly smaller businesses, may redeem loyalty points accrued on their corporate credit cards for gift cards.

Pursue Your FLSA Rights – Contact and Experienced Wage & Overtime Attorney

However an employer obtains gift cards, it is still illegal to give them to employees in lieu of paying them full overtime. Workers have a right to receive time-and-a-half for any time they work more than 40 hours a week. Anything less violates the law.

Workers who have received gift cards instead of full overtime pay may be able to recovery compensation for their lost wages. Employers may also be cheating employees out of their wages and overtime in other ways, too. Speaking with an experienced FLSA litigator is a good first step to find out if you might have a case.

It’s Not Just Amazon: Many Companies Allegedly Misclassify Workers to Avoid Paying Overtime

In June, a former Amazon warehouse manager filed a class action lawsuit claiming the online retailer deliberately misclassifies employees in order to avoid paying them overtime.

Michael Ortiz alleges the company hired him and other managers with the promise of a management job, but they were most often given the same manual tasks as hourly workers who received overtime.

Nonexempt and Exempt Employees

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) divides workers into two categories for the purposes of determining who should be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week: nonexempt and exempt. Most states also have wage statutes that make this distinction.

At most companies, nonexempt workers make up the majority of employees. Their work is closely supervised and usually consists of menial or repetitive tasks. They are paid hourly and are owed time-and-a-half if they work more than 40 hours in a week.

Exempt workers are salaried employees who typically spend their time supervising or managing others. They also have the freedom to exercise independent judgment in making decisions involving their work. Employers do not have to pay overtime to exempt workers.

Misclassification of Workers Is Illegal Under FLSA and State Laws

Depending on the industry, overtime can be a significant expense for employers. To avoid paying it, some companies deliberately misclassify employees as exempt when, in fact, they are nonexempt.

This is usually done by giving a worker a job title that sounds like they have management or administrative responsibilities when they do not. Some examples include “assistant manager” or “assistant supervisor.” On paper, it may appear that workers with these titles should be exempt from overtime. However, if the job duties are no different from those of nonexempt employees, however, they are misclassified and must be paid for working more than 40 hours in a week.

Companies Face Class Action Lawsuits For Misclassifying Workers

If a company deliberately misclassifies workers to avoid paying overtime, it is violating the FLSA as well as state laws. In these circumstances, workers may be able to file a class action lawsuit seeking the unpaid overtime they are owed.

Employees should never be cheated out of the wages they have rightfully earned. If you suspect your employer has misclassified your job, denying you overtime, you should consult an experienced FLSA attorney immediately. There may be a time limit for how long you can wait to file a lawsuit seeking compensation.

Lawsuit Filed Against Yelp! Alleges Long Hours, No Overtime Pay, and Off-the-Clock Work

A lawsuit was recently filed against Yelp, the San Francisco based company that provides business reviews, dining reservations, and other marketing services to businesses across the country. The lawsuit alleges that Yelp’s sales agents “were often on sales calls well past the end of their scheduled shift,” but that Yelp failed to pay them for all hours worked in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The lawsuit also makes claims for off-the-clock work for time spent starting-up and shutting-down computer systems and for time spent attending sales meetings and training sessions.  Although Yelp permits sales agents to record their own time, the lawsuit claims that sales agents were discouraged from recording any time worked outside of their scheduled shift start and end time.  The lawsuit seeks unpaid overtime wages for sales agents that worked in excess of forty hours in a single week.

Unpaid Overtime Wages in Violation of the FLSA

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that non-exempt employees be paid at a rate of one-and-one-half times their regular hourly rate for any hours worked in excess of forty hours in any single work week.  Even if a non-exempt employee is paid on a salary basis they are still entitled to overtime premiums for any hours worked in excess of forty in a single work week.  According to the lawsuit, Yelp classified sales agents as non-exempt employees.

Individuals that are or were employed by Yelp at any one of its brick-and-mortar call centers may be eligible to join in the lawsuit to collect unpaid wages.

Former Manager Sues Amazon for Unpaid Overtime

A former Amazon warehouse manager filed a potential class action lawsuit accusing the online retail giant of failing to pay him overtime. In his claim, Michael Ortiz alleges Amazon deliberately misclassified him as an exempt salaried manager when, in fact, his duties were the same as a nonexempt employee. His lawsuit claims this is a violation of California employment law.

California’s overtime rules are among the strictest in the country, with very narrow exemptions. They also place the burden on employers to prove an employee is truly exempt from overtime. Simply giving a worker the title of manager or supervisor is not enough to classify them as exempt under the law if their duties are the same as a nonexempt employee.

This is called misclassification and is also illegal under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In Ortiz’s case, he was hired as a salaried manager and promised supervisory-level work. As he told The New York Times, that turned out not to be the case.

“When we were hired, we were told we would be managers working on high-end things,” he said. “In reality, the bulk of the managers got stuck doing very tedious work.”

Ortiz also claims he was injured while performing manual labor, and alleges Amazon fired him as a result.

Misclassification Is Wage Theft

Misclassification is a very common way for companies to try to avoid paying overtime. They often give titles to workers that sound as if the positions involve management duties in order to classify them as exempt from overtime. Too often, however, the job the employee actually performs is no different from an hourly worker who is owed overtime for putting in more than 40 hours a week.

In order to be exempt from overtime, employees must spend most of their time supervising or managing other workers. They must also have significant personal control over how they do their jobs. If these tests are not met, then the workers must be paid overtime.

Misclassified workers may have the right to sue an employer under state law or the federal FLSA. Many companies have faced such lawsuits and paid compensation to their wage theft victims.

Several class action lawsuits involving these kinds of issues have been brought and successfully resolved by a variety of wage abuse victims:

  • Avis and Budget Car Rental managers
  • Burger King coaches
  • Costco managers
  • Family Dollar Stores managers
  • FedEx truck drivers
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures interns
  • Haliburton field service representatives and specialists
  • Kelly Services call center agents
  • Department of Veterans Affairs assistant canteen chiefs
  • Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us assistant store managers
  • Uber and Lyft drivers
  • UBS client adviser associates
  • Verizon Communications supervisors

There are time limits for filing such lawsuits, however, and quick action is needed. If you suspect your employer has misclassified your position in order to avoid paying overtime, you should consult an experienced employment attorney immediately.