Most of us have to get up and go to work every day in order to put food on the table and take care of our families. While some enjoy the work they do and don’t have any problems in their relationships with their employers, others face instances of being treated unfairly at work, and may not know how to deal with the situation.
The Denver employment lawyers at Lonn Heymann Law Firm, P.C. understand how frustrating it can be to feel you are being singled out at work. We work with clients who have been discriminated against by their employer, aggressively standing up for their rights and recover any unpaid compensation under the law.
Some examples of unfair wage practices include those involving discrimination, which can mean you are being treated unfairly due to your age, race, national origin, gender, a specific medical condition like pregnancy, an illness or disability or even your religious beliefs.
These instances may involve not receiving the same pay as another person who is performing the same tasks, being denied a chance for advancement within the company or being harassed or subjected to intimidation or ridicule.
Another form of unfair wage practice involves state and federally mandated wage and hour laws. Examples of this type of infraction by an employer include making certain non-exempt employees work more than 40 hours per week without paying them overtime wages, and the improper classifying of an employee’s job description in an effort to avoid having to pay them overtime wages.
| FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT: AN OVERVIEW • Minimum Wage: In cases in which an employee is subject to both federal and state minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two. • Overtime Wages: Covered nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per workweek (any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. There is no limit on the number of hours employees 16 years or older may work in any workweek. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days. • Hours Worked: Hours worked ordinarily include all the time during which an employee is required to be on the employer’s premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace. • Recordkeeping: Employers must display an official poster outlining the requirements of the FLSA. Employers must also keep employee time and pay records. • Youth Employment: provisions are designed to protect the educational opportunities of minors and prohibit their employment in jobs and under conditions detrimental to their health or well-being. Source: U.S. Department of Labor |
Other examples include:
• Not allowing adequate meal or break periods
• Misclassifying hourly employees as management employees
• Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor
• Misclassifying technical support employees as exempt from overtime wages
• Failure to properly calculate wage compensation for sales employees
If you are a salesperson, your compensation may include a somewhat complex mix of base salary, commissions, bonus and incentive pay and even overtime pay. Many salespeople are unsure of exactly what rules and laws apply to them regarding their compensation, and simply take the word of their employer. It may be easy for an employer, who also may not have a full understanding of how salespeople should be compensated, to take advantage of an employee in situations like these. They may be withholding or manipulating some portion of what is rightly due you, and you may not even realize it.
In today’s age of computer technology, a company’s information technology, (IT) employees can easily be incorrectly misclassified as exempt from applicable overtime wages. The distinction comes from the duties you perform as part of your job, and not the job title itself. There are many different classifications pertaining to IT employees, and they affect programmers, tech support personnel, technicians, webmasters, troubleshooters and network administrators, among others. There is a chance that your employer has misclassified you as exempt from eligibility for overtime pay, and you have been working well over 40 hours per week without being fairly compensated.
Some employers will classify an employee as a manager, when in fact they spend a large amount of their workday performing the same non-managerial tasks as hourly pay workers. Employers have been known to take advantage of their so-called “management” employees by requiring them to work more than 40 hours per week without overtime pay. Simply classifying someone with the job title of “manager” does not dictate the manner in which an employee should be compensated – it is strictly based on the type of tasks you perform.
Another risk of being misclassified involves the “contractor” job title. Today, many people earn a living as an outside or independent contractor or consultant. However, the way the company for whom you do work treats you may actually be more accurately described as an employee. Details like whether the company requires you to do specific aspects of your work at specific times, in specific locations, or other ways they may try to control how you perform your duties, could be a misclassification, and you may have legal recourse to recover monies that you should have earned while working for that firm.
The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor is the federal agency that is responsible for enforcing laws that set the minimum acceptable standards for working conditions and wages. The agency publishes extensive information including The Fair Labor Standards Act, The Family and Medical Leave Act, The Migrant and Seasonal Agriculture Worker Protection Act and employment rules and regulations for those between 13 – 18 years of age.
Wage and labor law litigation is a complex field, and those who feel they have been victimized by some form of wage or labor discrimination should seek competent and knowledgeable legal counsel when considering filing a case against their employer. The Colorado employment attorneys at Lonn Heymann Law Firm, P.C. can provide aggressive representation and solid legal guidance in order to best present your claim for any unpaid compensation you may deserve. Call our office to speak to one of our attorneys and learn how we can help.
