(Newswire.net — January 22, 2021) —
Does your employer owe you back wages? Are they being stubborn about paying you what they owe? If so, you should know your legal options for unpaid wages. With this vital information, you’ll understand how to move forward to get the money you deserve.
Unpaid Wages Overview
Your company is required to compensate you at your standard pay rate for any non-overtime hours you perform. If you do overtime, your employer should pay you a higher overtime rate. When the company owes you unpaid wages, you have the legal right to receive those wages plus interest and even penalties that state and/or federal law requires the firm to pay.
Minimum Wage Basics
All US companies must pay workers at least the minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour, or the local or state minimum wage if it’s higher than the federal rate. But if you and your employer agree to a higher rate, they must pay it.
When the company doesn’t pay you the minimum wage or the agreed wage, you can file a claim against it. To obtain your unpaid wages, you can file a lawsuit or an administrative claim in the labor department for your state.
What’s Overtime?
If you do overtime, you should receive a higher wage than the standard rate. Usually, overtime in the US is 150% of your regular wage. According to US law, a worker who works more than 40 hours per week should receive overtime pay. Note that some states have laws that provide you with other rights above and beyond the federal ones.
When your company doesn’t pay you overtime, you can file a claim against it.
What About Damages?
The amount you can get in your wage claim is referred to as ‘damages.’ You can obtain damages if you are successful in your legal or administrative claim against the company. The damages you can receive are as follows:
Unpaid Wages
First, you should receive your standard unpaid wages. When you’re successful in an unpaid wages claim, you will receive the wages that the company should’ve paid you. This will include any overtime that you didn’t receive. If the company only paid your standard rate for overtime, you’ll receive the difference between the standard rate and the overtime rate.
Interest
You’re entitled to compensation for the interest on the unpaid earnings, too. That rate is established by state law, so it can vary depending on where you live.
The other option is to receive ‘liquidated damages.’ This is the amount established in advance by federal law, instead of interest. If the employer acted in bad faith, you could receive twice the unpaid wages as liquidated damages.
Penalties
Many states require companies to pay you a penalty beyond the wages you are owed. For instance, California makes the company compensate you for the time you waited for compensation, which is defined as 30 days of your unpaid earnings.
Attorney’s Fees
Your company also must pay your legal fees if you prevail in a wage claim, as well as the costs of going forward with the case. Legal fees for these cases can run into the thousands of dollars, so make sure you keep careful track of all expenses in this area.
How To Enforce Your Legal Rights
You might think it’s simple to sue a company for back wages. If the claim is simple, you might handle the case on your own through your state’s department of labor. But if you are owed thousands in wages, hiring an employment attorney could result in a better outcome.