Examples of Unpaid Wages
Many employers illegally withhold pay from employees. The following are examples of some of the most frequent violations:
- Asking you to work off the clock
- Charging you for uniforms or other supplies you need to perform your job
- Failure to pay the minimum wage
- Failure to pay overtime or double time
- Failure to pay commissions or bonuses
- Failure to pay for meal breaks when the company requires you to stay on site
- Failure to pay your final wages after termination of your employment
If your employer is willing to cheat you out of all of the compensation you deserve, it may be doing the same to other employees. For this reason, our lawyers often handle unpaid wages claims as class-action lawsuits.
Protection for employees: If your employer fires you or punishes you for filing an unpaid wages case, it may be subject to additional damages. If your employer takes the case to court and loses, it may be required to pay your attorney fees.
Contact us if you have a question about whether your are owed overtime, double time, commissions, wages, bonus pay, or pay for meal or rest breaks. We want to explain to you what overtime is, what prevailing wage is, and when you are an exempt versus non-exempt employee.
Your employer is required to pay you for all time worked in California. If you haven’t received all of the compensation you deserve, you may be able to file a claim against your employer. Only an experienced attorney can determine the value of your unpaid wage claim, which may include the wages you are owed, interest, penalties and other damages.
We have a fairly new national labor secretary, he has a Latino name, and he is in Los Angeles with union activists at the AFL-CIO convention. He has pledged to raise minimum wage. Experts expect that he will further worker rights, aggressively enforce existing labor laws, and go after employers for wage theft. He may also deal with issues pertaining to undocumented workers.
In the old days, wage theft meant the employer was taking back earned wages. Wage theft happened when employers required employees to buy things from them, or rent their property (e.g. the company store). Failing to properly itemize the hours worked on a paycheck is modern wage theft under California Labor Code §226 . Failing to properly pay any wage due is wage theft.
Particularly offensive wage theft we are involved in includes failing to reimburse for mileage to the point that failure to reimburse amounts to more than 20% of the employee’s monthly wages. Failing to reimburse for employment related expenses is also wage theft. We also have a case where massive travel expenses were not reimbursed to a truck driver. This is a particular problem for truckers who incur hundreds of dollars a day in expenses and may be illegally forced to pay the fuel expense of the truck they are driving that is their employer’s.
Secretary Perez is also expected to deal with the conditions of the immigrant workforce, often illegal. In California, undocumented workers can sue for sexual harassment. They can also sue for an unpaid wages such as their hourly wage, minimum wage, salary, overtime, and meal break violations, and paychecks never received. In these lawsuits, other than involving the loss of employment, it is impermissible to ask about immigration status. Illegal aliens who are not authorized to work cannot sue for wrongful termination or the loss of a job the law views them as not being legally authorized to have in the first place.
Unpaid Wages & Settlements in Los Angeles of Employment Lawyers Group
- $1,250,000 Unpaid Commissions to Salesman
- $510,000 Emergency Adjusters not Paid Overtime
- $205,000 Arbitration Award for Underpaid Construction Workers
- $175,000 4 Strippers not Paid Minimum Wage
- $105,000 Overtime due computer professional
- $109,500 Unpaid Prevailing Wages of 2 Employees