I’ve always paid my employees for all of the work that they do as does any good employer. Of course not every Illinois employer works that way or treats their employees well. We’ve seen a handful of wage theft issues lately and thought it would be helpful to know what some employers are doing so you can look out for them.
A recent caller had a situation we see a lot and the best response is to sue on a class action basis to stop it. His employer will round up 15 minutes if you clocked in early and other times round down when you clocked out. Over a year it cost him hundreds of hours of pay. This is blatant wage theft and completely illegal. You should be paid for every minute you are working which means every minute you are on the clock or doing off the clock work.
Speaking of which, there a shocking number of companies who ask people to work off the clock. That’s not cool or legal. It’s most common in restaurants and bars. Maybe you show up and they ask you to help move a table or clean something before you clock in. Maybe after you clock out they notice something that needs assistance. It’s not legal. We see this a lot with all sorts of nurses too. If you walk into the building and a resident needs help getting from their chair to their room, it’s not easy to say no.
A different type of wage theft is assuming that you are taking a 30-60 minute meal break every day and not paying you for that time when you actually work. With some employers it’s as shameful as them requiring you to skip lunch because they are too busy. When that happens, you should get paid. This is another one where nurses get burned as well as factory/warehouse workers and others.
And the biggest one we see is tip theft. So many stores have computers that allow you to tip at checkout. Those tips shouldn’t be going to managers or owners. That is your money. They illegally take it all of the time. One store we looked into was taking the tips and using them for employee parties and gifts. They might have felt that they were doing something nice, but they in reality were stealing the workers’ money.
Not paying workers is theft. People don’t look at it the same as when someone shoplifts from a store, but it’s exactly the same thing. They’d certainly get you in trouble if you committed time card fraud. They shouldn’t get away with it when it’s them who are the thieves. And the general public should be more outraged by this as it happens all of the time, even at huge corporations making millions or billions of dollars a year.
The good news is that if you bring a lawsuit for this wage theft, you can sometimes get up to three times what you are owed and your lawyer fees paid. We’ve been able to help a lot of people and would love to help you as well. Please call us any time at 312-346-5320 to speak with a lawyer for free.
