Rochester Wage and Hour Claims Lawyer
All employees in New York are entitled to fair pay for wages earned. When employers use unethical and unlawful means to avoid paying minimum wage, overtime rates, or your hard-earned commissions, then employees have a legal right to seek compensation. While the Fair Labor Standards Act passed by the federal government in 1938 offers many general workplace protections for employees, federal law has limitations in the monetary protections it offers employees. Fortunately, New York State laws provide much more extensive protections, rights, and privileges for employees, including the Wage Theft Prevention Act signed in 2011.
The firm of Gattuso & Ciotoli, PLLC, in Rochester has decades of experience in employment law in New York State and our Rochester employment lawyers are ready to fight at your side if you’ve been denied adequate compensation for your work.
Have You Experienced Wage Theft and Other Unfair Treatment?
You’ve worked hard for your employer and given your best to your company, but when you find you’ve been shorted the wages you’re owed in return, it’s not only financially troubling, but it’s also deeply disheartening. While it’s true that honest mistakes sometimes occur in payroll departments, if you find you’re regularly experiencing unpaid or underpaid wages, you have a legal right to demand payment.
Some common ways employers avoid paying what’s owed to you include the following:
- Paying less than minimum wage for salaried workers
- Asking employees to work off the clock
- Taking illegal deductions from paychecks
- Lowering pay rates without notice
- Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor
- Misclassifying employees as exempt from the overtime law
- Not paying out on earned commissions
- Failing to pay overtime rates of 1.5 times an employee’s pay rate
- Labeling you as salaried when you worked over 40 hours in week
- Withholding bonuses or tips
- Withholding pay for any reason
It’s important to know your rights in New York when it comes to fair and lawful compensation for your work. With skilled representation, you can finally get the pay you’re owed without fear of retaliation.
When employers don’t pay what they owe you it’s a form of theft. Records reveal that American employees lose billions per year from wage theft, more than they lose from burglary and robbery combined.
How the Rochester Firm of Gattuso & Ciotoli Can Help
It is unlawful for employers to retaliate against any employee demanding the pay they are owed. All employers in New York must follow relevant employment law including paying at least minimum wage and paying time and a half for overtime. They cannot ask you to clock out and keep working or ask you to work through your lunch break and then not play overtime rates. If you’ve experienced these injustices or found your pay withheld or underpaid for any reason, contact the seasoned attorneys at Gattuso & Ciotoli, PLLC. We are ready to put our extensive resources, knowledge, and decades of experience with New York labor law to work, fighting tirelessly at your side even against powerful employers to help you gain compensation for your wage and hour claims.