As an employee, it is easy to generally believe that your employer fully understands labor laws and that they have you covered. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. Thousands of companies are guilty of violating labor and wage laws on a daily basis. In some cases, laws are violated intentionally by withholding earned wages and in some instances, companies make mistakes of infringing on their workers’ rights. One of the biggest labor law violation is a failure to pay minimum wage.
When it comes to minimum wage payment, effective since July 24, 2009, The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), requires covered employers to pay non-exempt employees the federal minimum wage of $7.25. This is the very minimum an employee should be paid, but not all employers are adhering to this amount. Employees who need to have more knowledge about this information are those who work in industries where tips are part of the job. These employees especially, should not be reliant on the knowledge that their employers will necessarily do what is right for them. In addition, the FLSA requires that employers maintain accurate records in order to be a legally-compliant business. Being compliant will also enable the FLSA to conduct investigations should there be a need to do so if there have been reported cases of possible wage and hour violations.
As a worker in any industry, you need to be aware of how your rights are being violated. Below is an infographic that explains seven ways your employer may be violating labor laws. Those labor laws include unpaid work breaks, failure to pay minimum wage as touched on above, the keeping of inaccurate records, employee misclassification, taking illegal deduction out of wages, not classifying employees correctly as well as restricting open communication for employees and preventing employees from discussing wages and complaining about job conditions on social media.
Companies should know better and should be held liable if they are breaking the law.
This infographic was originally posted on WageAdvocates.com.
