Evidences that can help your wage related lawsuit against employer

Filing a claim for unpaid wages or overtime is the most practical legal action for employees if they become a victim of wage theft. For this purpose, it is essential to take the help of a professional wage and overtime attorney. Lawyer can help you in getting compensated for damages including unpaid payments, mental suffering etc.

However, you must know that you need evidences to prove wage theft in court. Here are some of the evidences that you can use in court –

Time sheets – It is an excellent evidence to prove the claim of wage theft in your lawsuit. It shows all the hours you worked for your employer. It supports your case in court effectively gaining advantage for you.

Notice of employment information – It is another document that can work in your favor in court. It contains information regarding your employment such as rate of pay (including overtime), regular hours, shift, salary, benefits and more.

Driving records – Driving records are usually overlooked in a lawsuit. But, you must understand that it can benefit you a lot in claim. It shows the times you spent working for employer.

Pay stubs & Paychecks – Paychecks or subs you received during your job also work as evidence. It shows the amount you received for your work and if it was lower than pre-determined wage. Paychecks also show if there has been an illegal deduction in your salary. Detailed information regarding a bounced paycheck can be submitted too as a proof.

Written contracts – Written contracts between employee and employer can be submitted in court too. It contains comprehensive details regarding your job profile, payment, benefits, holidays, and more. You can use it to prove in court that you received less payments and overtime than written in contract.

Testament of witnesses – Witnesses like your ex-colleagues (or current colleagues if you are still working there) can give testimony in court in your favor. It can be very helpful for your claim.

Proof of retaliation – If your employer is retaliating against you, then you can give proof of it to strengthen your case in court. It includes any written statement, any retaliation action etc.

Plaintiff need to provide all or some of these evidences to prove charges against the opposition party. You and your attorney also need to explain the proofs that you submit in your claim’s support. In the end, lawyers can help you in getting estimated unpaid payments and compensation for damages.

Are employees safe from wage theft in America’s restaurant industry?

Wage theft in United States’ restaurant business is not new. In the last few years, many cases have been reported where restaurant employees demanded their unpaid salaries and overtime from employers. Many popular food industry franchises and establishments have faced lawsuits from workers over unpaid salaries.

Recently, the restaurant King Buffet was confronted with allegations of wage theft. Thirty-eight workers claimed that the employer owes them approximately $600,000 in fair payments.

According to the plaintiffs, they received salaries less than minimum wages determined by the law. Workers also worked for extra hours for which they never received any payment. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) took legal action in this case.
In 2012, the DOL helped food industry employees in receiving over $600,000 in unpaid wages and overtime. These workers were from two different cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The government took action against another restaurant chain, El Tequila LLC. In this case, the owner is alleged to owe nearly one million dollars in unpaid salaries and overtime to the employees.

In another case, a Mexican restaurant faced allegations of wage theft last year. This business was ordered by the DOL to pay more than $200,000 to employees in back payments and damages. Their workers never received payments for the extra hours over 40 hours in a regular workweek.

Recently, another food venue was ordered to pay nearly $45,000 in unpaid payments. This order was made by the department when they found that workers were cheated out of their fair pay. This was the clear violation of minimum payments and overtime laws.

Another inquiry conducted by the federal department alleged that Xanh Restaurant never paid overtime to their employees. After investigation, the business owner was told to pay more than $90,000 in unpaid overtime and damages.

Whether its food business or any other industry, it is necessary that employers pay their staff according to the rules and regulations determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

There are many ways waiters, servers, cook, bus boys, and other workers in the restaurant industry are shorted pay.  Sometimes, they are improperly paid a day rate and not paid any overtime.  Same with improperly paying them a salary.  Oftentimes, the employer takes a tip credit against the minimum wage and improperly pays less than minimum wage and sometimes nothing at all to allege the employee is tip dependant.

If you work in a restaurant and are the victim of wage theft, then you should immediately contact an unpaid wages attorney. An experienced lawyer can provide you legal counsel and can help you in receiving your fair payments from the employer as well as in getting appropriate compensations for the damages.

No one is above the law, not even the big brands!

According to the law, every employer is liable to pay fair for the work hours of their workers. If not paid properly, every employee has the right to file a lawsuit against employer. Not even big brands are safe from lawsuits when it comes to unpaid wages.

In 2014, the renowned firm LinkedIn Corp. was ordered to pay $6 Million to over 350 current and former workers. The lawsuit was filed on the basis of allegations that the firm did not measure the proper working hours. Payment was for the pending unpaid overtime wages and damages to the workers in many different locations.

Noted Allstate Insurance Company also faced similar claims. According to claims, the company exempted employees from the overtime rules determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Workers were not paid for the extra hours they spent working at job (over 40 in a regular workweek). Insurance adjusters are frequently misclassified as exempt from overtime, and made to work endless hours without overtime compensation. Even when they are classified properly to be paid overtime, often times insurance adjusters, like other industries force their works to work off the clock to keep their overtime costs down, but to keep their profits up.

In another case, the famous food chain McDonald’s faced allegations of not paying fair wages to the employees. Their workers from three states filed the claim for fair payments.

Subway’s franchisees also faced allegations of not paying legitimately to their employees. A claim was filed in which this franchisee was ordered to pay about $52,000 to workers.

A well-known name in baseball, the Miami Marlins faced allegations of not paying fairly to their staff. The team was forced to pay $300,000 to its thirty-nine employees. The San Francisco Giants is another renowned baseball team, which also faced a lawsuit from their employees. Team was told to pay almost $545,000 to seventy four workers.

There are several other examples where big brands faced lawsuits from their current or former employees regarding unpaid wages and overtime. It includes names like Uncle Bear’s Grill & Bar, a franchise of Dunkin’ Donuts, Rosa’s Pizza and Pasta Restaurants and more.

Every employee has the right to get paid for the work, efforts, and hours they put in their job. If employers are not paying their staff members according to the rules of FLSA, the employee should contact an overtime attorney. Experienced attorneys have the knowledge of law and experience in protecting workers’ wage related rights and can help you in getting your unpaid payments.

Deliberate Employer Mistakes that directly indicate FLSA Violations

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has set clear standards for wages, overtime, commissions, bonuses, vacations, etc. However, still employers try to find their way around the law and the increasing numbers of wage and hour violations says it all. High numbers of these violations are mainly because of the mistakes made by the employers with a purpose of wage theft. It is crucial for the workers to understand their employee rights and ensure they do not become the next victim for such employers.

Following are the mistakes that many employers deliberately make that violate wage and hour regulations-

• Overlooking Compensable Hours– It is mandatory for employers to pay their employees based on the FLSA guidelines whether it is minimum wages, overtime, meals break, pre-shift or post-shift work. But unfortunately, many employers intentionally make illegal pay deductions without worrying about the law. Or the employer may confuse the employee into believing the time is not compensable. Time spent for the benefit of the employer is almost always compensable, and the employees should be paid for it. Such work may include setting up, shutting down, doing a security check for the employer, time spent waiting looking for a seat to work, time spent waiting for a computer to boot up, etc. For lunch, if an employer does not give freedom during lunch and provide an uninterrupted lunch time the employer generally needs to pay for that time.

• Ignoring Wage and Hour Audits- It is good practice to conduct wage and hour audits on a regular basis. Ignoring these audits may results in the misclassification of employees.

• Improper Employee Classification– Determining whether an employee is entitled to receive overtime can be a difficult task for a layperson, but it is still inexcusable not to consult with a lawyer who handles employee classification first. Many employers purposely misclassify their employees in order to prevent paying money that they are entitled to receive and don’t bother checking because they don’t want to know the truth, because they can’t handle the truth.

• Not Addressing Complaints– Most of the times, employers learn about wage and hour issues only when a lawsuit has been filed with the assistance of an unpaid overtime attorney. They deliberately ignore complaints and questions of their workers, which should have been resolved initially.

If you believe that your employer has compromised your employee rights, you need to raise your voice against it. You should seek help from a professional attorney to protect your rights. These lawyers usually offer a free consultation and do not charge any fee unless they win the case for you. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you should seek legal help to receive the money that you are entitled to.

Overtime Payment Is an Employee Right!

After the great depression of 1930s, employment laws of the country necessitated that any employee who works for more than 40 hours, must be paid overtime wages. There are specific rules that govern the rate at which hours worked as overtime must be paid. As long as there are rules, people break them and employers continue to find ways to cut costs and lower wages at the expense of the workers.

Initially the motive of this rule was to put people to work which would improve the economic conditions of the country. But over the period of time, this concept has become a matter of fairness and an employee right, rather than a stimulus program to spread the work.

There are standard working hours, beyond which everyone is entitled to receive premium, and if the company refuses to pay that, the person can file a lawsuit against his employer by hiring an overtime attorney.

Many employers find loopholes in the policies and try to refrain from paying the overtime. They tend to do so by misclassifying the employees in a category, such as a salary, where they are not eligible to receive compensation. Other ways in which they keep workers deprived of their rights is by miscalculating the pay, making the employee work off the books or a variety of other schemes.

The Federal law states that for every extra hour spent working in the office, other than the standard working hours, the worker must be paid 150% of his regular hourly wage. If the company fails to do so, it can result in a lawsuit. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) governs these laws.

However, the attention should be paid to the fact that some professions are exempted from receiving overtime wages. Professions that are not entitled to overtime are called exempt and the ones that can be paid overtime are called nonexempt.

Generally, the professions that require advanced level of skills and knowledge, and managerial in nature are counted as exempted. In general any designation in which the person has to make critical business decisions and actually does so can be considered exempt from overtime compensation.

Such employees are paid on the basis of their salary. They will have to work the hours that are necessary to perform their job, and cannot ask for overtime. Still there are many violation of the salary laws and a salaried employee still needs to be paid more than minimum age and more than $455 an hour.

Many employers try to trick their employees by putting them into the category of exempt. Therefore, if you are not sure, whether you are entitled for overtime, you should first consult an overtime lawyer before proceeding ahead. Even if you’re salaried you might be entitled to overtime.

Your lawyer may help you receive your rightful money, if owed, by analyzing all the paperwork and information of your employment.