Minimum Wage

This year there’s been an ongoing debate in Congress concerning raising the federal minimum wage. The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25/hour with the minimum cash wage for tipped workers $2.13/hour. Further, because these amounts are not adjusted for inflation the amount minimum wage workers take home is becoming increasingly tight. In fact, single…

An interesting minimum wage lawsuit has just settled that has the potential to affect airport workers, including those at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In the minimum wage case, numerous airport skycaps filed a lawsuit against United Airlines alleging that the companies that the airlines contracts around the country failed to pay them the minimum wage…

Recently federal lawmakers have introduced measures in congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 and hour from its current $7.25. As expected, detractors raise the same arguments against increasing worker’s minimum hourly pay. However, not only is raising minimum wage an issue of basic fairness, it has also been shown to benefit the…

An unfortunate reality of today’s economy is that more and more workers are facing “wage theft.” Wage theft refers to the practice of underpaying or failing to pay workers for their labor. As stated in a recent wage theft article, “the problem reflects a changing economy in which low-wage work has increased, more companies try to cut…

A movement is underway in Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to as much as $10. Under current federal employment law – the Fair Labor Standards Act [FLSA] – employers are required to pay workers at least $7.25 an hour. Several states including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and elsewhere are pushing to…

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is one of the oldest federal labor laws and provides many protections for workers. Among these are guaranteed that workers receive minimum wage and that non-exempt workers receive overtime. Overtime compensation laws require that all employees who are not exempt must be paid at a rate of one and…

A minimum wage violation lawsuit brought on behalf of 5,500 employees against Applebee’s restaurant will proceed to trial. Pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit, Applebee’s employees are seeking back wages for thousands of employees who were paid less than minimum wage. The FLSA impacts nearly every employee who works for a wage…

The LA times reveals that the California labor commissioner has sued ZipRealty for nearly $18 million in a minimum wage case. At issue, the failure of the company to pay minimum wages and overtime compensation to hundreds of agents throughout the state. Both federal and state laws set forth certain minimum wage and overtime standards applicable…

One of the more common wage errors employers make is failing to pay their employees minimum wage. Sometimes, employers intentionally avoid paying minimum wage. Other times, they make errors and mistakenly fail to pay workers all the wages they are entitled to. Either way, the error may be a violation of state or federal minimum wage…

Two waiters at a Hard Rock Café in Florida have just filed a tip pooling lawsuit against the company, claiming Hard Rock didn’t pay them minimum wage. They are seeking class-action status for the case based on the number of potential servers affected. The waiters and waitresses assert that the “tip pooling” policy at the restaurant required servers…