New York Employment Attorney Blog
A federal magistrate judge from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York awarded food delivery workers of New York’s famed Saigon Grill $4.6 Million in damages as a result of federal and New York State wage violations.
Articles Posted in Compensation, Wages and Overtime
Overtime Pay Settlement for Bronx, New York Construction Workers
Recently, two companies, J. Siebold Construction and Finklestein-Morgan, a real estate management firm, agreed to a $1.23 million settlement for violations of the New York overtime law.
Apparently, construction workers performing services for the companies for the period October 2002 until August 2006 had not received time and a half for the overtime they worked while renovating apartment buildings throughout the Bronx. Instead of paying time and a half for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek, J. Siebold paid the construction workers “straight time,” i.e., their hourly rate without the additional overtime premium. This is a violation of not only the New York State overtime law, but of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Specifically, the agreement calls for J. Siebold to pay $1.07 million in overtime pay as well as $160,000 in interest and penalties, while Finklestein-Morgan is required to guarantee that the payments will be made. In addition, the companies are banned from retaliating against employees who came forward to complain about the lack of overtime pay.
Paycheck Fairness Act Passes in House
The House of Representatives, reacting to congressional findings, has passed, 247- 178, the Paycheck Fairness Act– which aims to amend the Fair Labor and Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex. Reacting to findings that pay disparities between sexes have large negative effects on the economy and labor resources, the Paycheck Fairness Act will, if enacted, work toward removing the artificial barriers to the elimination of discrimination in the payment of wages.
New York City Bakery Faces Overtime Pay Lawsuit
This week, employees of “Cake Man,” a celebrity baker in Brooklyn, filed an overtime pay lawsuit in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The lawsuit claims that 15 employees are owed at least a half million dollars in overtime pay over a six year period.
The obligation to pay overtime under New York law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act is absolute. An employer does not satisfy its obligation to pay time and a half for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek by rewarding employees with bonuses. Yet, that appears to be precisely what many employers, particularly smaller ones, do.
Federal Minimum Wage Increase to $6.55 per hour.
Effective July 24, 2008, the federal minimum wage increased from $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour. The federal minimum wage is still lower than the minimum wage required under New York law. New York requires that employers pay a minimum wage of $7.15. Accordingly, employees must still be paid the higher minimum wage in order for employers to comply with New York law.
The federal minimum wage is set to increase again on July 24, 2009 to $7.25 per hour. Assuming there are no further increases to New York’s minimum wage, employers will be required to pay this higher amount to their employees. Indeed, the New York minimum wage is automatically replaced by the federal minimum wage if the latter is higher than New York’s minimum.
For more information concerning minimum wage and overtime, please visit our website.
High Court of New York Finds Executives Covered by Labor Law
On June 10, 2008, the New York State Court of Appeals resolved an issue over which lower New York courts were divided. According to New York’s highest court, individuals who serve in executive or “white collar” capacities are entitled to protection under some of the wage provisions of New York’s Labor Law. The case, Pachter v. Bernard Hodes Group, Inc., is of particular interest to us, because our firm represented the executive.
Prior to the Court’s decision in Pachter many lower courts were divided on whether the Labor Law covered so-called white collar workers. Many courts had held incorrectly that only manual workers and those making less than $600 a week were protected by the Labor Law. The Court in Pachter recognized that, in fact, white collar employees were protected against unlawful deductions to compensation, and were also protected against pay discrimination on the basis of sex.