Survey Shows Many Low Wage Workers Cheated By Their Employers

Don’t Become A Statistic

Posted on 09-Sep-09 by The Timekeeper

According to the HR.BLR.com website, a new survey shows that most low-wage workers say they’ve been paid less than minimum wage, forced to work off the clock and/or been subjected to other wage and hour law violations by their employers.

Specifically, a group of professors surveyed workers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. They selected “low-wage” industries where front-line workers typically make less than 85% of the median wage in each city. The average worker they surveyed makes only $8 an hour. Sixty-eight percent of the workers surveyed reported at least one wage and hour violation in the previous week, which the researchers estimated cost each worker an average of $51 a week.

Considering that at $8 an hour, for a 40-hour week these folks are only grossing $320 to start with, getting underpaid by $51 is pretty major.

The gory details

Workers reported they were paid less than minimum wage (26%), were underpaid for overtime (76% of those who worked more than 40 hours in the previous week), were forced to work off the clock (70% of those who came in early or stayed late outside “normal” work hours), or had improper deductions taken out of their paychecks (41% of those who had deductions taken).

Time to clean house

Given that Secretary of Labor Solis has already announced plans to hire 250 more investigators for the Department of Labor — many of the allocated for the Wage and Hour Division — it might be time for these employers to consider cleaning up their act. As has been amply documented here, in the long run it’s cheaper (and better for business) to simply pay employees according to the law than to risk huge fines and penalties for wage and hour violations.

And, you know, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but if you can’t figure out how to run a profitable business without cheating your employees, maybe you shouldn’t be in business in the first place. I’m just saying.

Nice guys can finish first

Interestingly, people who worked for employers who provided health insurance and paid time off for vacations and sick days reported fewer wage and hour violations than those who worked for businesses that don’t provide these benefits. As the researchers said, “This suggests that employers’ decisions about whether or not to comply with the law are part of a broader business strategy shaping the workplace.”

In other words, employers who treat their employees fairly in one aspect of the workplace are more likely to treat them fairly in other aspects of the workplace? Uhmmm… duh.

Look, I’m not here to tell you what benefits you should provide your employees. Whether you have the most generous time-off allowance in the world or your sick day policy is positively draconian is up to you. But you are required to pay your employees according to the law for the hours they worked. You have top pay at least minimum wage, and time-and-a-half for overtime-eligible workers who put in more than 40 hours a week (eight hours a day in some places). And you can’t force people to work off the clock or make them clock in on two separate sets of books to conceal their overtime. Or take deductions from their pay you’re not entitled to. Or make them share their tips with you.

You just can’t.