Working remotely has become a mainstay of the U.S. economy, yet some employers try to take advantage of telecommuting employees and cheat them out of wages and overtime.
The benefits of telecommuting are well known. Working from home or other offsite locations helps employees juggle job, family, and personal responsibilities, and companies benefit from reduced office space and facilities costs. Despite the savings, many employers exploit teleworkers by cheating them out of wages and overtime for the hours they work.
Telecommuters fall prey to wage theft and abuse when employers:
- Engage in improper or inaccurate recordkeeping of employee work hours.
- Fail to pay workers when they are working offline or disconnected from company computer networks and systems.
- Denying compensation for travel time to and from office meetings, customer visits, and other worksites.
- Withholding compensation for “off the clock” work such as answering phone calls and email before and after designated work hours.