Hotel workers routinely taken advantage of...

From The HuffingtonPost.com:

More than a dozen low-level hotel workers in Indianapolis have filed a class-action lawsuit against ten of the city's hotels and a labor staffing agency, claiming they were routinely cheated out of pay with the knowledge of hotel management. 

The workers -- most of them Hispanic immigrants employed as housekeepers, dishwashers and bussers -- say they were forced to work off the clock and through their unpaid breaks, sometimes pushing their earnings below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The suit could potentially involve more than a thousand workers and millions of dollars in claims, according to the hotel workers union UNITE HERE, which is organizing workers in Indianapolis.

I wonder if this type of thing goes on in our area.  This article caught my attention due to the many hotels being built in our area.  There are two new hotels that will constructed in the Valley on Elmira Street in Athens Township.  A few years ago a Hampton Inn opened up on Elmira Street.  There are two new hotels in Towanda with a third one planned.

Wage protections for home health care workers

This is great news. This class of employee has been taken advantage of for years and years. As our population ages, home health care workers have a daunting job.

Here is a link to the article from the New York Times.

Minimum Wage Laws

Many, many of our Pennsylvania workers' compensation clients also have wage law questions. These laws determine what employers can give as minimum wages and the hours that are set. These laws control how many hours an employee can work during the week as well as over time wages and breaks, etc. The laws can be very confusing given the many categories of employees and how the laws apply to each category. The following is a basic primer on minimum wage law, including Federal and State. I thank Attorney Darryl Parker, who is a Seattle employment lawyer, for some of this information.

Federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 an hour, with some states individual minimum wage set at higher or lower or the same as the Federal limit. Minimum wage laws are very confusing for both employers and employees alike, and is different from state to state, but that does not give a business an excuse for failing to properly pay its employees. I believe that with coherent information on how these laws work, everybody will be able to have a better understanding of the minimum wage. In this article, I will address some of the most common concerns on minimum wage.

Who has to be paid the minimum wage? The vast majority of employees fall under the umbrella of minimum wage laws. There are, however, a few types of employees that do not have to be paid minimum wage. Students working internships fall under this category. As long as the internship provides an academic experience, the student can receive compensation in the form of experience and school credit instead of money. There are also certain types of contract employees that may establish rates as they see fit with whoever is hiring them. These rates do not have to be at the minimum wage level. It is also important to note that the minimum wage is meant for people that are 16 years and older. This does not prevent 14 and 15 year olds from working, though. Their minimum wage is legally set to 85% of the normal minimum wage.

How is the minimum wage calculated? First, it should be noted that there is a Federal minimum wage and a State minimum wage. Employers are subject to abide by whichever number is higher. In Pennsylvania, the state level is the same as the the Federal level, and has been for a while. Because of this, businesses are required to pay their employees at least $7.25 an hour.

Can employers count tips in their calculation of minimum wage? Some states have a lower minimum wage for employees that make money off of tips, but Washington is not one of them. Valet parkers, waiters and anybody else who gets tips as a part of their job must still be paid the minimum wage by the business that employs them.

What can I do if my employer is not paying me minimum wage? If you are not being paid the minimum wage despite working a job that requires your employer to do so, then you should seek legal representation as soon as possible. The minimum wage is meant to protect employees and allow them to live on a reasonable wage. When employers do not abide by these rules, the employee should speak with an experienced employment lawyer about what they need to do to take legal action.

For more wage information, please see this quick reference guide. As always, if you have any questions, please call us for a free consultation.

Low wage workers are often cheated, study says

Attached is a link to a New York Times article detailing a new study based upon workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The gist of the study is that low wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, which is against the law.

Some of the specifics of the study indicate that sixty eight percent (68%) of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay related violation in the previous work week. The typical worker had lost Fifty One Dollars ($51.00) the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of Three Hundred and Thirty Nine Dollars ($339.00) per week. That translates into a fifteen percent (15%) loss of pay for that specific week. For low wage workers, this is a significant amount of loss.

The survey included 4,387 workers from various low wage industries including para manufacturing, child care and discount retailing.

One of the most surprising findings that relate to the workers' compensation practice at Carroll & Carroll, P.C. was that only eight percent (8%) of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for workers' compensation to pay for medical care and missed days of work. This is obviously due to the fact that employers are very good at pressuring low wage workers into not filing claims or just completely misleading their injured employees.

Some of the other findings in the study: seventy six percent (76%) of those who had worked overtime the week before were not paid their proper overtime. Twenty six percent (26%) of the workers had been paid less than the minimum wage the week before being surveyed. Further, one in seven had worked off the clock the previous week.

In instances where the employee was injured and workers' compensation should have been applied, the study found that one third (1/3) of all injured workers had to pay the work related medical bills out of their own pocket and that workers' compensation insurance paid medical expenses for only six percent (6%) of the injured workers surveyed.

This study clearly demonstrates the need for more enforcement of wage and hour laws. It also clearly demonstrates why our workers' compensation practice is so busy.