{"id":1197,"date":"2013-03-07T16:05:15","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T16:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ffcm.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=1197"},"modified":"2018-01-30T16:35:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T16:35:13","slug":"compliance-man-main","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/?page_id=1197","title":{"rendered":"Compliance Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear\u00a0Compliance Man<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

My husband works for a small construction company in Western Massachusetts. He\u00a0gets several different rates of pay, depending on the job, but his base pay is lower. My\u00a0question is about his overtime.<\/p>\n

His employer will only pay him \u201cstraight time\u201d not time\u00a0and a half. Also, this pay is paid cash, and not regularly. Instead of receiving weekly\u00a0overtime pay, it accumulates until my husband asks for some of his overtime pay. Then\u00a0the boss will include a couple hundred dollars in his paycheck envelope. They are not\u00a0offering us an accounting of how many overtime hours he has accumulated, what has\u00a0been paid, etc., even though I\u2019ve asked for it. Financially this is difficult for us\u2014we\u00a0certainly could use the money weekly, not just when we get desperate and need to ask for\u00a0it. The boss claims we are \u201cbetter off\u201d receiving the money as cash, but I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n

\u2013Frustrated and barely making ends meet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear\u00a0Frustrated<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

It sounds like you have every right to feel frustrated! If your husband\u2019s boss only paid\u00a0him when he felt like it, that would be a clear violation of\u00a0state and federal laws<\/a>. His overtime shenanigans aren\u2019t legal either.<\/p>\n

Overtime is calculated on a weekly basis and is\u00a0triggered when an employee works over 40 hours that week.\u00a0Employees must be paid in\u00a0full, including overtime, within six days of the end of the pay period<\/a>. That means that any\u00a0time your husband works more than 40 hours in a single week, his next pay check must\u00a0reflect that.<\/p>\n

As for being paid in cash, his employer is within the law on this one, but he is\u00a0required to give you the accounting you asked for. Whether payment is made via cash or\u00a0check (promissory notes or IOUs aren\u2019t legal), it must be accompanied by a list of hours\u00a0worked including overtime, hourly rate and any deductions that have been taken out. Our\u00a0state and federal governments enacted these worker protections in order that workers like\u00a0your husband would be \u201cbetter off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most important thing that your husband can do\u00a0is keep track of exactly how many hours he\u2019s working, regular and overtime, and at what\u00a0rate. If he concludes that his boss is underpaying him, then it may be time to consider\u00a0filing a claim with the Attorney General\u2019s office. The FFCM will gladly help him with\u00a0this (we\u2019re sending along a log book that your husband may find helpful), and will also\u00a0be happy to provide his employer with a little refresher course on the law.<\/p>\n

Thanks for\u00a0writing!<\/p>\n

For more commonly asked questions, visit the\u00a0Compliance Man archives<\/a>. Send your question to\u00a0info@ffcm.org<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear\u00a0Compliance Man: My husband works for a small construction company in Western Massachusetts. He\u00a0gets several different rates of pay, depending on the job, but his base pay is lower. My\u00a0question is about his overtime. His employer will only pay him \u201cstraight time\u201d not time\u00a0and a half. Also, this pay is paid cash, and not regularly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1197","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ffcm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}