For a long time, overtime pay has been limited to low wage earners. Right now, the threshold is at the salary level is $23,660 per year. Many salaried employees only making slightly more than this cutoff will be asked to work very demanding schedules of more than 40 hours, only to receive the same pay that they always make. Efforts were introduced by Barack Obama to almost double the overtime threshold to $47,476 per year. New U.S. Labor Secretary Dean Acosta has been left with the responsibility of continuing to work on this overtime threshold issue which faces opposition from people worried about what effect it will have on the economy. Wage theft and discrimination can occur if you are earning below this threshold, are working overtime, and not being paid time plus time and a half. Questions to Ask Yourself to Identify Wage Theft Are you working through lunches?…
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The UCLA Labor Center claims Los Angeles workers lose a combined $26.2 million from wage theft every week. This means Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of wage theft in the country. There are multiple ways employers steal wages. The following examples of wage theft can happen in any industry. Employee misclassification: Employers may misclassify employees as independent contractors. This allows employers to pay employees less and deny benefits. In addition, employers can misclassify employees as nonexempt managerial workers to avoid paying overtime. Working off-the-clock: Employers may demand employees work before or after their scheduled shifts without pay. In 2012, a chain of Orange County car washes was ordered to hand employees $800,000 in back pay. It turns out the car wash chain had asked employees to show up on standby hours before their shifts began in case they were needed. None of these employees were paid while…
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Wage theft costs California workers billions of dollars every year. In Los Angeles County alone, workers lose $26.2 million to wage theft each week! How are businesses stealing from California workers? Employers may neglect to pay workers overtime, misclassify them as independent contractors or pay less than minimum wage. Fortunately, innovative organizations in our state are working together to help workers use an app to report and recover stolen wages. A group of workers’ rights and datamining organizations are collaborating with the Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition to create a wage-theft fighting smartphone app. These organizations include The Workers Lab and SeeClickFix. If successful, the WorkerReport app would make it easier for workers to report wage theft and safety violations directly to local agencies. WorkerReport uses GPS to mark the date, time and location of when workers arrive at and leave work. It can send these details to workers…
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