No one is above the law, including your employer. A variety of laws and statutes in the United States protect workers from unfair labor practices, discrimination, hostile work environments, unhealthy or dangerous working conditions, etc.
Many workers are simply unaware of their rights in the workplace. So, they do not know when their employers take them for a ride.
Here in this post, we will shed light on six important workplace laws your employer may be breaking.
- Violating the FLSA by Not Paying Overtime
Employers must comply with both federal and state laws when it comes to overtime pay. Certain jobs are classified as exempt from overtime pay by employment laws.
According to the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) of 1938, covered nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 per workweek.
Instead of a standard workweek, any fixed or routinely recurring duration of 168 hours (i.e. 7 consecutive 24 hours periods) can also be considered. Whether this period coincides with calendar week or not is irrelevant but averaging of hours over an extended period (three weeks, for example) of time is not allowed.
The overtime pay cannot be at a rate less than 1.5 times the regular rate of pay for an employee. For example, if you are paid $30 per hour, overtime pay for 10 hours should be a minimum of $450.
Keep in mind that employers may exclude certain expenses from your ‘regular rate of pay’ under the FLSA. So your ‘regular rate of pay’ may be less than the cost-to-company figure that you’d otherwise assume to be in directly in proportion to no. of hours worked and the per-hour rate.
- Violating the NLRA by Prohibiting You from Discussing Salary with Co-workers
It’s a common myth that workers cannot discuss their salary with each other. Your employer may not want you and your colleagues to reveal or discuss salary and benefits. But, your employer cannot prohibit you from doing so.
In this case, your right to freely discuss conditions of employment with your co-workers is protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 as ‘protected concerted activity.’ You are free to discuss or criticize working conditions on any public forum.
Under the NLRA, an employer insisting that you cannot discuss salary and benefits with co-workers is seen as an illegal effort to keep workers from unionizing or organizing.
Sometimes, it is through such discussions that you learn whether you are being paid reasonably in comparison to your co-workers who perform a similar set of duties.
You can file charges under the NLRA with the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) if your employer indulges in illegal behavior. This federal agency has regional offices across the country.
- Violating the EPA by not paying you fairly
The Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963 requires that employers pay the same salary to all workers who perform an identical set of tasks in the workplace.
If you have reasons to believe that you are being paid unfairly, you can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) before you file a lawsuit.
You can also file a claim with the EEOC if you believe you’ve been discriminated against on the basis of race, color, gender, and national origin or retaliated against for opposing unequal pay or any other wrongdoing in the workplace.
Consulting an employment law attorney whether you are filing a charge with the EEOC or filing a lawsuit for unlawful discrimination in the workplace is advisable to ensure everything goes smoothly and is done correctly. Except for the EPA, the laws enforced by the EEOC require you to file a charge before you can file a lawsuit in the court of law.
- Violating the Minimum Wage Laws
The federal minimum wage, as per the FLSA is $7.25 per hour. The federal minimum wage law is applicable to workers of an enterprise with annual turnover more than $500,000. State minimum wage laws also exist.
Employers must comply with both federal and state laws. Therefore, if you work in a state such as California where the minimum wage (applicable to employers with 25 employees or less) is $12 per hour, your employer must pay you at this rate or higher.
The minimum wage is enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
- Treating Independent Contractors like Employees but denying them Employee Rights
Many employers are tempted to hire people as independent contractors. They generally do so in order to cut costs but still retain a productive workforce.
An independent contractor isn’t technically an employee. S/he is not extended the benefits that ‘employees’ get. However, independent contractors have great flexibility in how they want to work or when they want to work. For instance, they can set their own working hours.
When a company begins treating an independent contractor as an employee by asking him or her to show up at a certain time, how long to work, or how to perform a task, without paying a higher wage as it would to an employee, it may be violating the law.
The IRS, DOL and individual states each factor in different criteria when deciding on whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee.
Seek legal advice to figure out if you have been misclassified as independent contractor.
- Violating the FLSA by Asking You to Work off the Clock
Nonexempt employees covered by the FLSA cannot be asked to work off the clock. For example, employers cannot ask workers to clean up or do prep work for an upcoming assignment outside their paid working shifts. An employer trying to hand out cash or a payment off-the-books in return for such work outside your paid shift is a violation too. This is seen as an employer trying to evade payroll taxes.
Disclaimer: This is not legal information. No attorney-client privileges are substantiated from this article.
Author Bio
Frank Feldman is PR/Media Manager at Stephen Danz & Associates, one of the largest law firms committed solely to representing employees in their disputes with employers in California.
