Power plant workers work hard and deserve to be paid the right amount. Unfortunately, sometimes power plant workers find that they have not received the amount of pay that they typically expect.
This could happen because an administrative mistake has been made and the worker ends up with the wrong amount.
However, this is not always the case and all too often power plant employers deliberately pay less to a power plant worker in the hope that the deliberate mistake would be overlooked.
Often a power plant worker is too intimidated to complain when s/he finds less money than expected at the end of the week.
It is important that any power plant worker who believes that s/he has been underpaid to find out whether this is deliberate wage theft or not.
There are state and federal laws that protect workers from wage theft. Employers know that but hope power plant employees do not know their rights.
If you can provide evidence that your employer is not paying you the agreed amount that was decided when you first took up employment, you may be able to take legal action against your power plant employer.
However, it is important to seek help from an employment lawyer before you begin the process.
What to Look For on Your Paycheck
If you look at your bank account details and find that you are not getting paid the expected amount the first thing you should do is look carefully at your paycheck and if you are in any doubt that you have been underpaid you should approach the power plant’s HR department to ask for an explanation.
It could be money had been correctly deducted an amount which you were not aware of. All pay checks are required to list all items on it including number of hours worked, amount of tax deducted, number of hours worked as overtime and any other deductions which you should be aware of.
The first item to check is that your net pay amount is what you typically were paid. After establishing that you should sieve through the remaining items on the paycheck as indicated below:
- Are the hours worked correct?
- Was the correct hourly wage paid?
- If you did overtime was it paid at time and half?
- Were your tax and insurance contributions calculated correctly?
- Were the deductions what you normally expect? Deductions for a power plant worker could include items such as uniform supplied, cleaning bills, equipment used, accommodation and meals & transport.
Power plant workers should not be paid less than the federal or state minimum, depending on whether the state or federal minimum is the higher.
For example, if you work in California as a power plant worker, the state’s minimum hourly wage is greater than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, so your hourly pay as a power plant worker should be at least the state minimum wage.
If the deductions (not including tax and insurance) are such that your pay drops below the state minimum, then this might be a form of wage theft.
What to Do if You Are a Victim of Wage Theft
If you have suffered from wage theft, it is quite likely that you will not be the only power plant employee working for your employer who has experienced this.
It would be in your interest to ask some of your work colleagues who are doing the same job if they have been receiving less money on pay day than they normally receive.
Whatever you find out from other employees, you will still need to go to your accounts department or HR with your paycheck and discuss why you thought you were not being paid what was agreed.
Make sure you make a record of their response. You may be lucky and find that the mistakes can be explained easily, and you will receive the lost wages in your next paycheck.
If you are not satisfied with the power plant accounts department’s explanation, and are still certain you have been underpaid, you should file a wage theft claim with the Wage and Hours Division at your closest Department of Labor.
The Labor Commissioner might be able to get the underpayment sorted out or things could become much more challenging. Your employer could face a fine or even imprisonment if there has been a serious and deliberate breach of state or federal employment law.
You should talk to an employment lawyer about your claim as this situation would be something, they would have handled many times before. The lawyer will outline your legal options, including filing a lawsuit against your power plant employer for wage theft.
