“Blame it on payroll” appears to be the motto of many employers who shirk all kinds of employee complaints by vaguely referring to some “error” by the nameless, faceless folks toiling in obscurity in the bowels of the human resources department.
Was your check light? “Payroll error.” You did not get credited for working overtime? “Payroll error.” Your direct deposit never arrived at all? “Payroll error.”
The truth is, the “payroll errors” are often flimsy excuses for wage-and-hour violations. Whether it is shorting workers on minimum wages and overtime, effectively forcing them to work off the clock, or taking various illegal deductions, employers steal money from their employees that they have earned fair and square. These violations often go long undiscovered and are then swept under the rug as “payroll errors” when employers are eventually called out.
The good news is that working people can fight back when they are shortchanged on the job. That includes joining class-action lawsuits to recover the money they earned and hold employers responsible for “payroll errors.”
At Justice Law Corporation, our California wage and hour attorneys help people ensure that they are fully paid for their work. We are seasoned lawyers who have dedicated our careers to fighting for working people in California and Washington. Our lawyers have a strong track record of success for the people that we represent.
Common Company-Wide Payroll Errors
Payroll errors happen more often than most employees realize. Sometimes they’re small and get corrected quickly. Other times, they are widespread, repeated, and quietly underpay large groups of workers for months or years.
Miscalculated Overtime
Employers’ payroll systems often incorrectly apply overtime rules. That is especially true of large employers with workers in different states, whose overtime pay rules vary.
In California and neighboring Washington, for example, employees must be paid 1.5 times their regular rate for any work performed beyond 40 hours in a workweek. In California, there is also something called ‘double-time,’ where employees receive twice their regular hourly rate. This applies to hours worked over 12 in a single day or hours worked beyond 8 on the seventh consecutive workday
Workers are often systematically underpaid when their employers roll out new policies or pay rules change, and payroll systems are not properly configured. These problems tend to span across an employer’s departments and locations.
Meal and Rest Break Violations
California requires a 30-minute off-duty meal break after five hours and a second meal break after 10 hours, plus paid 10-minute rest breaks. Washington employees are entitled to a 10-minute rest break every 4 hours, a 30-minute meal break for shifts over 5 hours, and no more than 3 hours without a rest break under state regulations.
Automated systems are often designed to assume breaks are taken, regardless of whether employees actually get them, which can result in widespread violations. For example, a system that automatically deducts 30 minutes for meal breaks every day, even on days when workers don’t get breaks, may be stiffing those employees on hourly pay and meal-period premiums.
Failure to Pay for All Hours Worked
Payroll systems are commonly flawed in ways that unlawfully trim paychecks. Some of the most common errors that our wage and hour attorneys see include:
- Rounding time in a way that always favors the employer
- Not paying for pre-shift tasks or post-shift closing duties
- Ignoring travel time or waiting time
- Deducting time for mandatory security checks
These violations tend to be systemic. They affect a broad range of employees in various positions, all of whom are paid through the same system.
Improper Expense Reimbursement
State laws require employers to reimburse their employees for certain work-related expenses. Uniform policies that fail to reimburse for personal cellphone use, mileage, tools, or remote-work expenses can affect entire categories of employees.
Classification Mistakes
Classification errors often affect many workers with the same job title by incorrectly treating them as exempt from overtime pay and other requirements.
Just because your title has the word “manager” or “supervisor” in it, that does not mean you are exempt. Instead, exemption usually depends on how much you are paid and the type of tasks you routinely perform on the job. California and Washington are among the states with sweeping overtime rules that mean many managers and supervisors are entitled to higher overtime wages.
Strength in Numbers: Class Actions for Wage and Hour Violations
Workers who have been shortchanged by the same or similar payroll errors have the right to file claims and pursue lawsuits against their employers. They also have the power to unite and fight back.
Employment class actions are lawsuits in which groups of workers pursuing similar claims collectively sue their employers. They help working people level the playing field with massive corporations and other large employers. They also give workers leverage to push employers to pay them what they are owed and to change pay and other policies to avoid similar suits in the future.
A class action is appropriate when many workers experience the same legal violation in the same way. Company-wide payroll issues are prime examples: a single policy or error affects a group of employees in the same way. Whether it’s a flawed timekeeping algorithm, an unlawful break policy, or a misclassified job category, a uniform practice typically affects all employees similarly.
Workers in wage and hour class actions generally can seek:
- Back pay
- Interest on unpaid wages
- Penalties
- Attorneys’ fees and court costs
Even if the violation is truly a simple “payroll error,” employers are responsible for making their workers whole. In other words, it does not matter whether your employer purposely meant to rip you off or just made a mistake.
Class actions are also a powerful tool in situations in which workers’ individual claims are too small to justify bringing individually. If one worker loses 10 to 20 minutes of pay each day or is shorted a few dollars in overtime per week, the individual amount might be too small for a practical lawsuit. If hundreds of workers or more are being shortchanged the same way, the employer may be on the hook for much more in damages.
Our California Wage and Hour Attorneys Can Help
If you believe that your employer is violating your rights on the job, whether it is by being underpaid or in other terms and conditions, you do not need to go it alone. A California wage and hour attorney at Justice Law Corporation can help you evaluate your claim and understand your rights and options.
Our office is conveniently located in Pasadena. Contact us at (818) 230-7502 to schedule a free consultation with a California wage and hour attorney.
