Broward County adopted its new Wage Theft Ordinance in early 2013. The purpose of the ordinance is to not only make it easier for employees to recover their wages, but to also provide incentives for employers to pay the amounts due. I have reviewed the Ordinance and provided this summary to give a gist of… Read More…
Florida Minimum Wage Up 12 Cents For 2013
The Florida Minimum Wage went up – increasing from $7.67 per hour in 2012 to the new Minimum Wage of $7.79 per hour for 2013. That’s an increase of $0.12 per hour. Employers can pay $3.02 per hour less than the Florida Minimum Wage, by paying a direct hourly wage of $4.77 per hour to… Read More…
Get A Free Paycheck Review
What’s Your Paycheck Missing ? It Could Be Your Pay! Paychecks tell a lot about a business. For example, paychecks that fail to contain the number of hours worked, the rate(s) of pay, and the dates covered by the paycheck usually prompt me to investigate the business further to determine not if, but how… Read More…
Here’s A Tip…
Tips are the property of the employee, generally. Servers, bartenders, and others who regularly and customarily receive tips can actually get paid less than minimum wage – $3.02 per hour less than minimum wage to be exact. Payment in this way is called the “tip credit”. But, there are a lot of technicalities involved when… Read More…
Workers’ Compensation Settlement Agreements – Consider Including This Language
Workers have it tough these days – which are not much different than any other day(s). But, there is a bright spot for those who lose their jobs. Courts are now trending towards holding employers to their agreements to NOT contest unemployment benefits. This case serves as an example of the recent trend – in… Read More…
Filing a Wage Theft Complaint in Miami-Dade
Employees working in Miami-Dade County who did not get paid their proper wages can use a process outside of the Courts to recover their wages (i.e., combat wage theft). Some in the Florida Legislature tried to ban Cities and/or Counties from enacting wage theft ordinances but, thankfully, this effort failed. The idea behind Miami-Dade County’s… Read More…
Immigration Status Is Still Irrelevant To Overtime Pay Claims
Recently, the Department of Labor obtained a decision from a federal court in New York in Solis vs. Cindy’s Total Care, Inc. in which the Court ruled that evidence of immigration status was irrelevant to employees’ claims for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). In particular, the Cour held that, “The Act contains… Read More…
Home Health Care Workers May Soon Be Entitled To Overtime (And At Least Minimum Wage)
In-home health care workers are currently exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). This means that they are not entitled to receive at least a minimum wage or overtime pay. But things may be changing. In December of 2011, the Obama administration announced that it wanted to expand the overtime and minimum wage protections… Read More…
Deparment of Labor Letter?
My office gets contacted by employees who receive letters from the Department of Labor saying that they are owed back wages. These back wages are usually underpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime pay. While I respect the Department of Labor and those in the local offices with whom I have spoken on matters, especially for the… Read More…
Maybe You Are Entitled to Overtime Pay
I have assistant managers contact me to ask whether they are entitled to overtime pay. They explain that they don’t make decisions about hiring or firing other employees, don’t set schedules, and don’t have the ability to suspend or reprimand other employees. They perform job duties that are almost identical to everyone around them, except… Read More…
