At first glance, you may give your employer the benefit of the doubt and assume an honest mistake was made when calculating your wages. Although mistakes are made, wage theft is shockingly common.
If you bring a shortage to your employer’s attention and it goes uncorrected, or you get one excuse after another about why you are not entitled to overtime pay, or fees you did not know about are being deducted, it is time to contact a dedicated attorney from the Feldman Legal Group and begin collecting evidence used in Tampa wage and hour violations.
Types of Wage Theft
Employers can be cagey in thinking up ways to avoid paying employees what they earn. They may try to combine hours over two weeks to total 80 when one week far exceeded 40 and the second week did not. Under federal law, hours exceeding 40 in one week should be compensated at one and a half times the employee’s hourly wage. Combining hours is theft of that overtime. Other examples of wage theft include:
- Improperly classifying an employee as an independent contractor to avoid paying overtime and deducting and matching taxes or benefits
- Skirting paying overtime by telling an employee they should have completed their work in 40 hours
- Not receiving a final paycheck after resigning
- Withholding tips from restaurant workers, causing them to fall below the minimum wage
- Being paid less than agreed upon wages
- Shorting hours, for example, employees who clock in at 9:01 do not begin getting paid until 9:30
Employers find ways to steal wages, and whether a complaint lands before the labor board or in court, where Feldman Legal Group lawyers in Tampa are not afraid to go, evidence-gathering is crucial to a successful claim.
Evidence of Wage Theft
Once employees suspect wages are being stolen, it is imperative to begin collecting and memorializing everything. A detailed job description helps assert that an employee is not an independent contractor. Copies of timecards or time sheets, an employment contract if applicable, pay stubs, and a personal log of hours worked each day will help prove the case. Make detailed listings of breaks because employers who dock employees for taking federally approved short breaks are flaunting the law.
Get a copy of the company’s employee handbook, which should have relevant information concerning benefits, lunch and rest breaks, and how employees and independent contractors are classified. An employment lawyer can assist in gathering evidence to use in Tampa wage and hour violation cases. Once an employer is aware an employee is represented, they are more apt to cooperate. If they do not, the Feldman Legal Group lawyers will see the employer in court.
Communications With an Employer
In the technological age, it is easier to document an arrangement with an employer as proof of wage theft. All emails, saved voicemails, or text messages that could support a claim of wage theft or establish what an employee was promised should be saved and turned over to an employment lawyer.
We Help Identify Evidence Used in Tampa Wage and Hour Violations
Every case is unique, and there are myriad ways for employers to steal wages from employees. If you suspect your employer is shorting your pay or you were told you are not eligible for overtime, begin documenting now. Evidence is the key to a claim to recover your back wages, attorney’s fees, and possibly liquidated damages.
You may have been intimidated or threatened, or you may not want to take on your company and its lawyers. Remaining quiet should not be an option. Let’s right this wrong together. Mitchell Feldman will help you gather evidence used in Tampa wage and hour violations and fight for the money you are owed. Contact our firm today.
