Wage and Hour Laws: Violations and Penalties

Federal and state laws generally set out the minimum wage that every worker is entitled to receive, including the amount of compensation for overtime pay. However, some employers fail to comply with these requirements which result in violations, and ultimately, penalties.

Three categories of the wage and hour requirements are often violated. These include unpaid wages, unpaid overtime wages, and failure to meet minimum wage requirements.

Wage and Hour Law Violations

Some of the more specific violations involving wages may include the following:

• Incorrect payment of minimum wage
• Failure to pay overtime
• Over deduction in tips
• Making employees work "off the clock" and not paying them
• Paying lower training wage or youth minimum wage to workers who deserve more

Wage and Hour Laws

Wage and hour laws were created to protect employees and workers and to ensure that they are fairly treated in terms of compensation for work done. In California, for instance, wage and hour rules are governed by the California Labor Code and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Violations of the wage and hour laws may be unintentional to some employers. Perhaps for lack of knowledge of the law, some employers may have overlooked or ignored these legal requirements. Here are some of the common causes of employer mistakes that lead to violations of the wage and hour law:

• Misclassifying an employee as "exempt" from receiving overtime pay
• Failure to provide employees with uninterrupted meal break within the first five hours of work
• Failure to provide ten-minute breaks for every four hours of work
• Failure to provide paid time for tasks required to prepare for work
• Failure to provide second meal break for shifts longer than ten hours
• Failure to pay minimum wage to employees being paid on a per-project basis
• Failure to provide official pay stubs with all required information

Federal and state employment laws also require employers to comply with other provisions related to wage and hour law. Here are some of the basic wage and hour requirements:

Employee Time Records

The California Wage Orders require employers to keep accurate time records of work periods of non-exempt employees, including meal period and split-shift intervals. This Order also includes a record of the applicable rates of pay as well as total hours worked in each payroll period.

In addition, California employers are also asked to define the workday and the workweek, which will be useful in payment of overtime compensation for the worker.

Required Rest Breaks

Further, under California labor law, workers must be given rest breaks, which should occur as near as possible to the middle of the work period. However, the California Labor Commission said that an employer does not violate the rest break requirement if an employee freely decides without any coercion or encouragement to waive the rest period. On the other hand, an employer must not allow an employee to combine or add rest breaks to meal breaks.

Under the law, an employer who fails to comply with the required rest breaks may be liable to pay an additional hour of pay based on the worker’s regulate pay rate for each workday that it did not provide a rest break.

Meal Break Laws

As the law requires, employers must also provide all non-exempt employees with unpaid meal break. Employers are expected to take reasonable measures to ensure that employees are actually taking meal breaks.

An employer who fails to provide the required meal break will be required to pay one additional hour of pay at the rate of the employee’s regular pay for each workday it failed to comply.

Overtime Pay

Non-exempt employees who are not covered by collective bargaining agreements must be paid overtime pay based on the number of hours worked in a workday. Under the law, employers must provide time-and-one-half the employee’s rate of pay for all hours worked beyond eight hours in a workday.

Employers who fail to pay overtime wages may face penalties and pay the worker what is due him.

• This article is provided for informational purposes only. If you need help with an Employment Law question, please click here to consult with Rodney Mesriani or an Employment lawyer in your area.