Wage and Hour

Wells Fargo $15M Wage-Hour Deal 'Overbroad,' Court Told


Share us on: TwitterFacebookLinkedIn By Alex Lawson 0 Comments Law360, New
York (April 01, 2014, 3:18 PM ET) -- A pair of lead plaintiffs in
multidistrict litigation lobbing wage and hour allegations against Wells

In a struggling economy, some businesses prefer to offer lower wages, but higher bonuses at the end of the year based on the employee’s performance.  With the volatile job market, employees often wonder, “What if I am laid off before the end of the year?”  “Do I still get my bonus?”

Many employers, even large corporations, often violate federal and state laws requiring premium payment of overtime (usually time and a half after 40 hours in a workweek) to their workers. Sometimes these violations are not planned, but unfortunately, often they are intentional.

Many companies improperly classify some of their workers as independent contractors who receive no benefits and no overtime pay for the work or services they provide. If you and/or your co-workers are in this category, you may be entitled to benefits and to back pay if you worked more than 40 hours in a workweek and were not paid overtime at time and a half your regular rate of pay.

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture presented by Matthew Gardner who is an economist and a principal of Gardner Economics.  He also frequently lectures on the state of our national and local economies and the effect they have on real estate markets.

I think there is a lot of truth to the song  by Loverboy.

Last week, an employee lawsuit filed against Spokane-based Sterling Financial was dropped. The plaintiff in the case said he never agreed to any involvement and did not give permission for his name to be used by attorneys.

Interns are a great resource for a company. They are generally thirsty for knowledge, willing to work hard to prove themselves, and oh yes, willing to work for cheap or even nothing. At least I was when I was in law school. Although the intern might be willing to work for nothing that doesn’t mean a “for profit” business doesn’t have to pay him or her.

I have a three year-old niece who, like most kids her age, thinks everything belongs to her no matter what it is. Don’t get me wrong, she is the sweetest girl out there, but she’s three, so naturally everything belongs to her. The last time we were visiting with her, she grabbed my blackberry, yelled “Mine”, and frowned when I took it from her a few minutes later.

Employment law is all around us.  So much so, examples of it can even be found in the movie ”Bridesmaids ”.  Last week, I went to happy hour with my wife and some of her female co-workers/friends.  During the conversation, it came up that I was taking her to ”Bridesmaids” on her birthday.&nbs