Subtle Differences Between Unpaid Wages and Wage Theft

To a worker who may have done work and not been paid for it, not being paid is not being paid, no matter what you call it. But legally, there are differences in the reasons why employees who have earned wages, aren’t paid those wages, and the differences can have a significant legal impact on a case or claim for unpaid wages.

Unintentional Unpaid Wages

Normal unpaid wages, which might be the result of an accident, an accounting error, or just carelessness by your employer, often fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act,, or FLSA. The FLSA allows for aggrieved employees to collect double the lost or unpaid wages, as well as attorney’s fees, should they sue and win unpaid wages.

Of course, there are times when someone purposefully ignores the FLSA, or intentionally implements policies that deprive workers of earned wages. For example, an employer might institute a tip pool policy that illegally shares tops with non-tipped employees, thus depriving tipped employees of money earned.

Despite the fact that the policy might be intentional, as might ignorance of the law, the employer is not targeting you, or trying to harm you, personally or intentionally.

Wage Theft: Targeting Employees

Wage theft is different. Wage theft is when your employer purposefully targets you (or a group of employees) in holding back money from a paycheck, or when the holdback is something that is done to purposefully and intentionally deprive you of certain earned wages.

For example, imagine that your employer wrongfully thinks that you should pay for your own work uniform, or for your own work training. To get you to pay, the employer withholds that money from your paycheck.

Or, imagine that your employer feels that you “didn’t really earn your money” one day at work, and to get back at you, withholds that day’s worth of pay.

Wage theft can also happen in situations where an employer knows you are working but purposefully doesn’t pay you.

For example, let’s say that your employer thinks you made some kind of mistake at work. To force you to “make up for it,” your employer insists you come back to work, and fix your error or make up the time, without being paid.

These examples show a purposeful targeting of an employee, for a specific behavior or alleged cost incurred, and are directly deducted from the employee’s normal wages earned.

Recovering Damages

Practically, unintentional unpaid wages allow a worker to sue for lost wages or unpaid overtime pursuant to the FLSA, but intentional wage theft also carries additional penalties–including, possibly, civil remedies and even punitive damages–for unilateral behavior that takes money from an employee’s paycheck.

And of course, in any lawsuit, the fact that there is an allegation of intentional and targeted wage theft, never looks good for an employer that has targeted and stolen from an employee.

Has your employer wrongfully withheld money from your paycheck? Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today.

Sources:

nelp.org/wage-theft-is-when-an-employer-withholds-benefits-such-as-breaks-or-compensation-that-an-employee-has-already-worked-for/

law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/260