More companies than you would think weasel their way around the minimum wage law. It is extremely rare to find a company that simply sets an hourly wage less than the minimum, because that is so easily discovered and dealt with. But it is not uncommon to find companies who, in practice, cut paychecks for less than the full amount owed to their employees.

One common tactic used by employers is to be strict on clock time and strict on duties at the same time. For example, an employee is scheduled to work a 9-5 shift, but at 5 the employer tells the employee not to leave until the floor is swept, or the tools are put away, or some other little task is done. The employee winds up working past 5:00, but the schedule on which the payroll is run does not reflect that. Even if the extra time is only fifteen or twenty minutes each time, it will quickly add up to several hours of unpaid work time.

Another employer trick is to require employees to be present at the worksite at a specific time, but not to allow the employee to clock in until work demand warrants it. For example, an employee at a small retail store is told to report at ten o'clock, but when she arrives there are no customers and she is told not to clock in yet, but just to wait in the employee lounge. An hour later when the store begins to fill, the manager directs the employee to clock in. At first blush, it seems reasonable for the employer to keep the employee off the clock until there is work to be done, but because the employee was specifically directed by the employer to be present and ready to work, the employee must be paid for that time.

Yet another technique used by some employers to keep payroll costs artificially low is to reduce recorded hours for such reasons as "it shouldn't have taken this long," or "you were making personal calls instead of working." Even if the employee was slacking off instead of working diligently, the employer cannot correct the problem by arbitrarily reducing the employee's already completed hours.

If you find yourself in one of these situations, keep your own record of the hours you work, keep a log of people who were aware of your hours and can act as witnesses if necessary, and keep copies of your payroll records. Then contact the Department of Labor (DoL) office in your area. The DoL Wage and Hour division can investigate and correct reports of wage violations.

Learn more about this author, Pamela Parker.
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