Your employer is expected to pay you for all the work you have done. Each state, as well as the federal government, has put in place minimum hourly rates which employers must pay you.
If you have noticed that you haven’t been paid properly, there may be an easy explanation for it, or your employer may be intentionally violating a state or federal labor law. This is also known as ‘wage theft.’ You then have the right to recover any missing wages through legal action against your employer. You will need an employment law attorney to help you with a claim.
How to Tell If Your Paycheck Is Wrong
If your wage varies from pay date to pay date, you will need to check very carefully before accusing your employer of not paying you enough. This should be easy if you are normally paid a regular wage.
If your wages are irregular or you work overtime sometimes, you need to go back and check exactly how many hours you have been paid since the last correct pay date. If you have an employment contract, this should include the normal hourly rate, the number of hours a week, when you are paid, what vacancies you are allowed, how many of these are paid, how much you are paid overtime and whether you have worked overtime since you were last paid correctly.
If you go through these figures carefully and have proof of them you should then be able to determine whether you have been paid correctly or not.
Steps to Take When Your Paycheck Is Wrong
Not many employers attempt to pay less than they should. There may be a genuine reason why you didn’t get paid enough. The best thing to do first of all is to see the HR section or whoever is responsible for determining how your wages are paid and see whether a genuine administrative mistake has been made. If this is discovered, then you would expect the employer to make good the discrepancy.
If you encounter obstacles and cannot make any progress with your employer and your wages have still not been corrected, you need to take the matter to the state labor office with evidence of your complaint. In most cases, the state labor office should take the matter up with your employer as there are usually consequences if an employer tries to get away with violating state labor laws.
If you are not getting anywhere with the state labor office, your next step will be to talk to an employment law attorney about taking legal action against your employer.
Contact an Employment Law Attorney
When you contact an employment law attorney, go through what you have done to make sure you have been paid properly and how you have tried to get it corrected. The attorney will have a working knowledge of state and federal labor laws and will give an opinion about whether your employer has violated a law. The attorney should be able to help you with evidence that you will need and represent you if you make a claim against your employer. Complete the Free Case Evaluation to get in touch with an employment law attorney that is able to take cases in your area today!
