It’s a common misconception to believe that employers cannot take advantage of salaried employees. While much of employment law involves protecting hourly employees from exploitation, employers can violate the wage rights of salaried employees as well. We’ll cover some of the most common issues we encounter at Rowdy Meeks Legal Group LLC.

Common Problems for Salaried Employees

You should be aware of the following wage problems with your employer if you’re salaried:

• Automatically Conflating Salaried with Exempt
  Believe it or not, employees can still be legally due overtime wages even if the employer pays them a salary. The federal overtime law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), provides that all employees must receive overtime pay unless a specific exemption applies based upon job duties and pay structure. The job and pay must both meet these strict requirements to legally deny the employees overtime pay. This means that employees can still be legally eligible for overtime pay even if the employer pays them a salary. This is true because the job duties do not meet the requirements for overtime pay denial.
• Assuming that FLSA Overtime Exemption Gives Them Carte Blanche for Abuse
  All employees have basic rights that shield them from discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage payment, and other abuses. Your employer doesn’t have the right to treat you differently based upon a protected characteristic such as your gender, age, or race just because you earn a salary. You should be suspicious if your manager treats you in a way he or she would never treat an hourly employee.
• Illegal Pay Deductions
  Salaried workers must receive pay even if there is no work available as long as they are ready and able to work. Also, pay deductions cannot occur based on job performance or other subjective measures. Employers who repeatedly make illegal deductions from salaried employees’ paychecks owe those employees overtime pay This is a complicated area of the wage laws so you should contact us if you believe this is happening to you.

Job Classification Problems

Two of the biggest employment problems we see are the misclassification of workers as either “assistant managers” or “independent contractors.” The assistant manager problem relates to how hourly workers get misclassified as salaried employees so that the employers can work them longer hours, less expensively. This often happens in the restaurant and retail industries. Many assistant managers and working leads have sued their employers and recovered large wage settlements. The independent contractor problem occurs when employers classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees to save money on wages and benefits. The key issue is the right to control. You are likely an employee and not an independent contractor if the employer controls when and how you perform the work.

Rowdy Meeks Legal Group LLC: We Back Employees

Whether you need help as either a salaried or hourly employee, you can find it with Rowdy Meeks Legal Group LLC. Our team has years of experience litigating wage cases for salaried and hourly employees. It doesn’t matter what type of wage problem you’re experiencing, you don’t have to tolerate it, and we can help.

Contact us at Rowdy Meeks Legal Group LLC to learn more regarding any wage problem you may be having with your employer. We want to assist you in recovering all the wages you have earned.