The amount of back pay you may be entitled to recover can be significant.
Federal and state laws and regulations govern the payment of wages. If your employer has not paid you in full for all of your work, you may be entitled to penalties and payment for the wages you are owed.
Wage and Hour Claim
If you answer “yes” to any of the following questions, you may have a wage and hour claim:
- Do you work more than 40 hours per week without overtime pay?
- Are you ever at work “off the clock” when you get ready for work, or clean up after work?
- Do you have to work through meal or other breaks without being paid?
- Are you paid a “salary,” but do the same work as hourly workers?
- Are you being “docked” time (time taken out of your paycheck) for meals, breaks, etc. that you never took?
- Do you have to travel between or to job sites without being paid for that time?
- Are you treated as an “independent contractor,” but the person who pays your checks controls how you work?
In some situations, the issue with wage and hour violations has to do with employee missclassification. For instance, an employee who is entitled to receive overtime for working over 40 hours is missclassified as “exempt” from getting overtime pay. Sometimes, a full-time employee may be missclassified as an independent contractor. When these violations and errors are exposed, a number of rights to additional compensation begins to come into focus. The back pay you may be entitled to recover can be significant.
Filing a Wage and Hour Claim
For most Americans, their ability to survive is directly influenced by the wages they receive. Wages, which include salaries, commissions, and hourly wages, make up the majority of wages employees receive. In Missouri, all employees must be properly compensated for all hours they work.
A wage claim occurs when an employer fails to give an employee their rightful earned salary, commission, vacation pay, bonus, stock option, dismissal wage and other type of money or reimbursement owed.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), is in place to establish minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping, and child labor standards which affect full-time and part-time workers. When an employee has not been paid properly for the hours they’ve worked, they may bring a civil action against their employer. In addition, the law protects the employee from being able to retaliate.
St. Louis Wage and Hour Lawyer
If you have a wage and hour dispute within the state of Missouri, please contact our experienced wage and hour lawyers for a free consultation. Call us at (314) 361-4300 or fill out our online contact form.
It is worth your time to sit down with an attorney and have your case fully assessed.