Wage Theft Is Rarely Accidental In Miami
If you think that wage theft occurs by accident – think again. Your employer doesn’t accidentally underpay the the electric bill; it doesn’t accidentally underpay an insurance premium; and it and knows when it didn’t get paid by a customer. So, why do you think that your not getting paid an overtime wage or the minimum wage was a mistake? It wasn’t.
Employers are well aware of the laws requiring them to pay you an overtime wage or a minimum wage just like they know about the laws which require them to pay their taxes. The difference is that your employer thinks that it can get away with wage theft.
If your employer doesn’t pay the light bill in Miami, FPL turns off the power – and there is no one else out there who can turn it back on but FPL. If your employer underpays an insurance premium, the insurance company doesn’t provide insurance coverage. If a customer doesn’t pay a bill, your employer knows that it wasn’t paid and does whatever it can do to get paid.
You, on the other hand, might be making excuses for your employer about why you didn’t get the wages you earned. Maybe you are/were so happy to have a job that you worked 50 hours every week, but don’t get overtime pay; or, maybe you worked 40 hours a week to get paid $7.00/hour. You are letting your employer get away with wage theft – and pocket the money you earned.
Times are tough today for workers. The news is filled with “bad job reports” and “unemployment numbers”. But, the laws were written to protect workers who are victims of wage theft in many ways. The laws make it possible for an employee to hire a lawyer to recover even a few hundred dollars in overtime pay or minimum wages because successful employees and their lawyers can recover twice the unpaid wages plus attorneys’ fees. This makes it possible for a wage, hour, and overtime lawyer to represent you and help you recover the wages you earned – no matter how small the amount. Plus, if it happened to you, your co-workers also were probably victims of wage theft – and you can all join together in one lawsuit to combat your employer.
To discourage (and then punish) employers from retaliating against employees who make a claim for overtime wages or minimum wages, severe penalties apply to offending employers.
If you were a victim of wage theft, the FairLaw Firm can help. It costs you nothing to talk to an attorney – and the only thing you have to lose is the money you may be entitled to claim.
