What kinds of wage theft may affect workers in Amarillo?

Amarillo, TX – A serious problem for employees throughout Texas and the United States is wage theft. This comes in many forms, but the employer is always responsible for making sure their workers are given the correct wages and keeping records to reflect that. Anyone who has not been paid properly can bring a claim with the Texas Workforce Commission, as well as getting legal advice related to pursuing the matter formally. The worker can receive all of their total pay, as well as other damages such as interest if the pay was late.

What is wage theft?

Whenever a worker is not paid the total amount their employer owes them, this is technically considered wage theft. This may happen due to honest mistakes, but there are also situations where an employer purposely tries to shortchange their workers in various ways to save money and avoid paying correct wages. This can be by violating overtime laws, withholding tips, illegal deductions, minimum wage violations, and asking for unpaid work as favors. A few of these forms of wage theft tend to be fairly common.

Not paying overtime

Workers who are paid hourly are eligible for overtime. This must be at least one and one half times their standard pay. Unfortunately, a number of employers in Texas will try to simply avoid paying overtime altogether by misclassifying workers, or telling them that they are not eligible. There are some legitimate exceptions to overtime laws, but these are for salaried workers, administrators, and certain other employees who are not regular full time workers. Questions about a worker’s status should be addressed to human resources, or the employee can obtain their own legal advice if they need to do so.

Less than the state and federal minimum wage

In Texas, workers are all eligible to be paid at least the state minimum wage, which matches the federal minimum wage. This means that the employer cannot choose to give some or all of these workers less than this amount per hour for any reason. There are also laws related to workers who receive most of their pay as tips and the amount that they must still receive per hour.

Any worker who was paid at a rate less than minimum wage is entitled to receive any outstanding wages to match what their pay should have been if the employer followed wage laws.

Additional information about labor and wage laws in Texas

Moore and Associates can assist with problems such as unpaid wages, sexual harassment, and discrimination for local clients in Amarillo. People who need to meet with a lawyer for advice can contact the firm to learn more.

Firm contact info:

Moore & Associates

440 Louisiana Street, Suite 675, Houston, TX 77002

713-222-6775