There are numerous ways that businesses try to minimize what they pay for staffing. Oftentimes, they cap the wages they will offer for certain positions and even go so far as to limit how many people will be scheduled for specific shifts.
Occasionally, companies go even further than that, creating unusual solutions in an attempt to avoid paying overtime wages specifically because of how much they can cost a company. Some organizations have no-overtime policies that mandate management or even corporate written approval before someone can work past 40 hours in a given week. Other companies may offer salary pay as a way to exempt their workers from overtime requirements.
Some organizations even pay their employees on a daily basis, but such practices have recently come under fire. As a result, daily workers who have been previously denied overtime may now have viable grounds for a wage claim.
Daily workers have different pay based on time worked
The Supreme Court recently ruled on an overtime case related to daily pay. The scenario involved a highly-skilled and highly-compensated professional paid on a daily basis. Their wages were well over the six-figure threshold, and therefore their employer did not offer overtime pay even when they put in exceptionally long hours.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that because daily workers technically receive different wages based on how many hours or days they work in a week, those workers deserve overtime pay if they put in more than 40 hours in many cases. Workers who have multiple years on the job may recognize that they have a sizable potential claim and that they have not received the overtime pay that they deserve based on the work they performed for their employers.
Wage claims don’t always go to court
A wage claim involves a worker asserting that their employer failed to comply with federal labor and wage standards. Those paid via daily wages could potentially make a claim based on their employer’s failure to provide overtime wages when they performed more than 40 hours of work in a specific week.
In some cases, workers only need proper documentation and someone to negotiate with the employer to get the wages that the law says they should have received. However, in cases where the employer is not receptive to the request from workers, employees should prepare themselves for the possibility of the claim going to court.
Pursuing a wage claim with the assistance of an experienced legal professional can compensate someone for the work they have already performed and also inspire companies to institute fairer practices concerning wages in the future.
