Calculating Overtime Pay The federal Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued a letter providing guidance for employers with respect to calculating overtime payments. Generally, federal law requires time-and-a-half for any hours worked beyond 40 hours in a seven-day workweek. But calculating what is owed for overtime pay can be complicated because an employee might have different pay rates for the hours worked and tips, service charges, automatic gratuities, and reimbursements might need to be included.…

Gig Workers Employees Win Again Gig workers won another major victory, this time in the United Kingdom. As discussed in a prior post, courts across the United States are finding that gig workers are “employees” and are not independent contractors. Similar to these recent rulings from courts across the United States, the UK Supreme Court recently issued a ruling holding that gig workers—Uber drivers—are “workers,” and are not “contract workers,” under UK labor laws.…

“Good Faith” Defense to Wage and Overtime Claims All employees have a right to be paid for the work they do and are entitled to the protections of all state and federal labor laws. For example, employers must pay the prevailing minimum wage, must pay overtime when required and must pay the correct overtime rate. If you think that your employer is violating your rights as an employee, you should contact a worker’s rights…

Employers try to misclassify gig workers as independent contractors to avoid compliance with wage and overtime laws. However, all across the country, gig workers are being protected more and more by courts and state laws. This is good news. For years, employers have been illegally misclassifying gig workers as independent contractors to avoid paying minimum wage, overtime and providing other benefits and rights that are owed to employees. Gig workers, for example, cannot claim unemployment…

Amazon Wage Theft Wage theft is unlawful and happens more often than employees would imagine. Worse still, employers engage in wage theft intentionally and, often, purposely conceal their wage theft and lie about it when challenged. A case in point is Amazon, which has just agreed to settle a wage theft investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). Amazon agreed to pay $61.7 million to settle the investigation into its wrongdoing. The FTC has indicated…

Workplace Retaliation is Unlawful Did you exercise your rights as an employee only to have your boss retaliate against you? If this has happened to you, your employer can be held liable for money damages and other punishments. Employer retaliation is unlawful. If you think your employer has retaliated against you, you should contact the employee rights attorneys at Herrmann Law who can help vindicate your rights as an employee. Unlawful retaliation occurs when: An…

Am I protected by my State’s Labor Laws? One reason that it is important to seek legal counsel from attorneys that are dedicated to employees’ rights, like those at Herrmann Law, is that it is not always clear which state labor laws apply. In this increasingly interconnected world, and now that many more employees are working remotely, the question of which set of laws should apply is one that takes on added importance. As in…