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One of the fastest growing career fields in the country is that of direct care workers as more and more elders hit the retirement age each year. It may come as an unwelcome surprise then that the United States Department of Labor (DOL) did not impose regulations of direct care worker wages and overtime pay rights until January of 2015.

A direct care worker is any employee who provides home care services, such as:

• Caregivers
• Certified nursing technicians or assistants
• Companions
• Home healthcare providers
• Personal care providers

Homecare workers who are official employees of a home care company or similar agency should automatically qualify to be paid federal or state minimum wage – whichever is greater – and earn overtime pay like any other hourly employee in the state. In Texas State (circa 2016), the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and employees must earn at least 150% of their wage per hour if they work more than 40 hours in a work week for the same employer.

Homecare Workers Who May Not Qualify

As with all federal and state laws, there are exemptions in the DOL’s homecare worker wage and overtime pay right laws. If you are a homecare worker who is directly employed by the person you help, or their family, you are unlikely to earn wage and overtime pay rights. The same can be said if you are legally identified as an independent contractor. The extent of your expected duties while on the job can cause you to earn those rights, though, but it varies from case-to-case.

If you suspect that you should be earning minimum wage but are being paid below it, or if you think you should earn overtime but do not, it is time for you to contact Moore & Associates. Our Houston employment law attorneys have built a reputation for being capable of going toe-to-toe with unfair employers of all sizes, from large corporations like Chipotle to industry giants in the Texas oilfield scene. Call 713.581.9001 today to get your free initial case evaluation.

In January 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed significant changes to annual EEO-1 reports in an attempt to pinpoint causes and incidents of paydiscrimination across the country. Currently, the EEO-1 report tracks just race, ethnicity, and sex within 10 job categories offered by private employers and federal contractors with 100 or more employees. The recently proposed changes expand upon how those 10 job categories are tracked by also including 12 payment tiers for salaried workers.

While the idea of having to sort through every employee’s salary amount and tracking them accordingly is already causing frustrations for employers, this is not the end of the proposal. The EEOC also wants to know how many hours each employee works a week, or is expected to work each week. To track this information, another all-new form would need to be generated and then compared to the adjusted EEO-1 form.

Is the Effort Worth the Outcome?

Employers are also anticipating trouble arising from the EEO-1 form’s current due date of September 30th. In order to track salary and hours worked, W-2 data would be required. The problem is that most employers understandably do not have W-2’s completely ready until the end of the taxable year, so around December or January. For some smaller employers, making the adjustment to prepare their W-2’s that much earlier is a huge inconvenience, or possibly not a reasonable option.

Other opponents to the changes fear that the expanded report does nothing to find real discrimination in the system due to relying solely on numbers and not on related information to an employee’s earnings. For example, the EEO-1 report can show that a handful of people of a certain sex and ethnicity are making much more on average than those not within that group. It does not say why, though, and could overlook important employment factors like education, work history and experience, seniority, and so on.

It should be interesting to see how the EEOC’s proposed changes to EEO-1 reports play out, and our Houston employment law attorneys will be tracking the story as it develops here on our employment law blog. If you need help with an employment law matter of your own, or require our professional legal representation, you can contact Moore & Associates by calling 713.581.9001 today.

For more information on sexual harassment click here.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

If you believe that you have been a victim of discrimination in the workplace due to a protected characteristic such as race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability, you can take action against your employer by filing a Charge of Discrimination (COD) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In most cases, filing a charge with the EEOC is required before pursuing a civil lawsuit against your employer. It is important to note, however, that a COD must be filed within a certain amount of time after the alleged instance of discrimination to be valid.

Generally speaking, a COD must be filed within 180 days of the date of the discriminatory action, though this deadline can be extended to 300 days if a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting employment discrimination in the same fashion. In instances where the discrimination is in regards to a person’s age, this deadline will only be extended if a state agency enforces a state law prohibiting age discrimination. Local laws, however, will not warrant an extension. These deadlines include holidays and weekends, though if a deadline falls on either of these, you will be allowed to file until the end of the next business day.

What if More than One Instance of Discrimination Occurred?

Unless you are alleging ongoing harassment within the workplace, a COD must be filed for each separate case of discrimination. For example, if you were demoted due to a protected characteristic and then fired one year later for the same reason, filing a COD on the date of your firing would only warrant an investigation regarding your termination instead of both your firing and demotion.

Special Considerations for Equal Pay Act Claims

If you believe you have been discriminated against in terms of your wages and benefits for reasons of gender, the Equal Pay Act allows you to file a lawsuit without the need to file a COD. These types of cases must be filed within two years of receiving your last discriminatory paycheck. Since these cases often also warrant filing a claim under Title VII, it may be wise to file a COD anyway to maintain your eligibility to pursue a Title VII claim as well.

Overall, these different deadlines and special rules can easily become extremely complex, making it crucial for you to consult with an experienced employment lawyer in the event that you should ever be discriminated against. If you are looking to file a discrimination lawsuit against your employer or need assistance filing a Charge of Discrimination, a highly knowledgeable Houston employment lawyer from Moore & Associates can walk you through the appropriate legal processes and protect your rights in a court of law. Having represented countless clients since 2001, we are fully equipped with the skills and extensive knowledge to maximize your chances of securing a desirable outcome for your situation.

To get started, contact our office online or give us a call today at (713) 581-9001.

Our team at Moore & Associates is proud to announce that Houston Employment Law AttorneyMelissa Moore and Senior Associates Curt Hesse and Rochelle Owens have all secured spots in the 2016 list of Texas Super Lawyers®. This marks Attorney Moore’s fourth year securing this honor and Attorney Hesse’s second consecutive year being named a Super Lawyer® Rising Star℠.

Super Lawyers® is one of the leading organizations in the country that reviews and recognizes the absolute best attorneys all across the United States of America, and even in England. Only attorneys who excel professionally through courtroom achievements and settlements may be chosen to wear the association’s badge for that year. In the end, 5% of all attorneys can be Super Lawyers® and only 2.5% can become Rising Stars℠.

The selection process all begins with nominations that are collected from their peers in their area of practice. The organization is strict about nominations, doing all it can to ensure that no one “cheats” or “games” the system to win a selection. Super Lawyers® will then conduct extensive research into the most promising of nominees.

The research includes analyzing and reviewing:

• Verdicts
• Honors
• Years of experience
• Professional activity
• Pro bono work
• Scholarly presence
• Education
• And more

Another peer evaluation will be conducted for the attorneys still in the process. Finally, the selections are made and the attorneys are notified. For our attorneys to achieve this great honor in one year is certainly an exciting time for our firm, as it clearly showcases our dedication to our clients and our craft. If you would like to know more about our services and what we can do for you, feel free to call us at 713.581.9001. You can even request a free case evaluation for employment lawcases.