Employers and their parent companies don’t just stumble into their positions of power or get there by luck. They need to have some familiarity with running a business and a considerable set of skills managing employees and company finances. While this is obviously beneficial in many ways, it also means that they could be hiding wage-hour violations through careful tactics. If you are starting to think that there may be something dishonest or at least negligent going on in your company’s payroll department, you need to learn how to spot some common signs of a wage and hour dispute on the horizon.
Keep an eye out for workplace issues involving:
- Wages: Sometimes the violations are clear as day but well hidden in plain sight. Double-check your paychecks to ensure that your hourly wage is actually what they told you it would be. Furthermore, run the math yourself to see if the hours-to-wage ratio actually adds up as the paystub says it does.
- Overtime: What are your state’s overtime laws and how do they apply to your employer? Some businesses may attempt to avoid proper overtime payouts knowing that the vast majority of employees don’t understand how the laws function.
- Tips: Industries that involve frequent tips from customers – such as food service – allow the employer to reduce hourly wages to a certain extent to “balance out” how much they make with others in the company who do not receive tips. Ask your fellow coworkers if they have seen any issues with the tip pool lately.
- Misclassification: What does your company actually call you? Are you an employee in their eyes, or an independent contractor? There are countless lawsuits involving companies and employees intentionally misclassified as independent contractors to save the corporation money. Review your job title and description to see if everything checks out fairly.
Professional Help for Professional Problems
The moment you think you spot a wage-hour violation going on, you need to team up with a lawyer. Your employer surely has access to a legal team already, and they will do everything they can to silence your claim to save themselves a dollar and their reputation. Oftentimes, only a professional can step up and go toe-to-toe with a corporate attorney.
Our Houston employment law attorneys at Moore & Associates are here to help people in your exact predicament. Contact us today to let us know what is going on, and we can determine if you have a case on your hands. You can even call 713.581.9001 and get a free case evaluation over the phone. Act now to start fighting for your deserved wages.
