The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division has recently been cracking down on wage theft. Wage theft generally occurs when employers fail to pay the proper minimum wage or overtime rates as stipulated in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Additionally, when employers misclassify workers as exempt from the FLSA or otherwise skirt wages from workers, these are also forms of wage theft.

Last year, the Wage and Hour Division performed more than 100 wage investigations involving New Jersey gas stations. As a result of these investigations the Wage and Hour Division recovered about $2.3 million in stolen wages for over 500 gas station employees. In a recent case this year, the owners of 72 New Jersey gas stations have agreed to pay $1 million in damages and $2 million in back wages to more than 400 victims of wage theft.

Investigators found that employees of these gas stations were frequently working as many as 84 hours a week without overtime pay. Under the FLSA, employees must receive at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40. This employer was reportedly paying some employees in cash for the extra hours, without keeping any proper record.

In addition to paying workers back pay and damages, this employer will be monitored for three years to ensure it is complying with federal employment laws from here on out. It also has been required to install biometric time clocks in each of its workplaces as well as provide FLSA training to its employees.

The full-service gas station industry is one of several where wage theft may be more common.

When employers do violate federal or state wage and overtime laws, they can and should be held liable for back wages and additional damages. Victims of wage theft may benefit from speaking to an employment law attorney about their rights.

Source: CSP Daily News, “N.J. Station Owner Agrees to Pay $3 Million in Back Pay, Damages,” March 7, 2013

• Our law firm in Kingston, New Jersey, provides legal representation to people in South Jersey and Central Jersey who are facing various employment law problems.