WE HELP YOU GET EVERY PENNY YOU'VE EARNED AND MORE

We recover wages by examining whether an employer owes you unpaid wages and penalties under the wage laws that provide penalties and fees from employers who haven't followed the law. Then, if you have been wronged, we can often offer a contingent agreement to pursue the wages for you without you spending a penny up front.

FOR EXAMPLE:
We make sure that employers pay workers as an employee if they are treated like an employee.

We stop employers from failing to pay all wages earned.

We aggressively pursue overtime by examining the duties performed, since ordinarily they determine whether overtime is due.

We also use the Minnesota Wage laws to respond to: illegal deductions: forced tip pools; forced or tolerated work off the clock; and failure to pay departed workers.

If you have left employment in Minnesota, we can help you demand prompt [24 hour after termination] payment and enforce the legal penalties available if the employer fails to pay you.

A former President of the Minnesota Bar Association, many attorneys and several law firms have hired us to prosecute employment matters, because they know that the quality of your attorney often affects the quality of the outcome in a case. They have turned to us, and we have produced outstanding results for them.

Unfortunately, many employers routinely violate wage and hour laws by using several schemes to pay their employees less than they are owed. Below are some examples of common wage and hour violations that our offices can help to recover on your behalf.

In Minnesota, an employer generally must pay workers an overtime rate of 1.5 times their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week.
Common strategies employers use to avoid paying overtime include:

• Paying a fixed day rate or weekly rate, no matter how many hours the employee works in a week.
• Paying the same hourly rate for all hours worked, even for hours worked past 40 per week.
• Not including all compensable time in computing overtime pay, potentially including travel time between jobs or time spent performing pre-shift or post-shift job duties.
• Designating employees as salaried even though they don't qualify as exempt from overtime. That's right, even if the employee calls you salaried, you may be eligible for overtime.

Employees in Minnesota must be paid minimum wage as required by state or local law. As of January 1, 2023, the minimum wage in Minnesota is currently $10.59 an hour for large employers and $8.63 an hour for other state minimum wages. If your employer has a combined gross revenue of more than $500,000, they pay the large employer minimum-wage rate.

St. Paul and Minneapolis both have minimum wage ordinances that may require a higher rate of pay depending on the size of the employer.
In Saint Paul, the hourly minimum wage rates range from $11.50 up to $15.00 per hour.

The minimum wage in Minneapolis is $15.19 effective from January 1, 2023, for franchises and large businesses. Smaller employers (100 or fewer employees) continue paying at least $13.50 (until July 2023).

Employees must be paid for all the hours that they are required to work, even if the employer does not formally authorize the time. Work off the clock may include any uncompensated work that is tolerated or required by the employer such as: automatically deducted lunches; pre-shift duties; and generally any work that is not paid for by the employer.

Under Minnesota law, restaurant owners and managers are barred from establishing a tip pool or encouraging the redistribution of tips to employees who do not ordinarily receive tips. This may include hosts, bussers, dish washers, food runners, bartenders, chefs, food preparers, kitchen staff, and cleaners. It's not uncommon for employers to create a tip pool or strongly encourage tipped employees to contribute a percentage of their tips to a pool that helps supplement the income of the non-tipped employees.

Some employers know that there are fewer legal protections for independent contractors, so to avoid paying workers the minimum wage, overtime, and other benefits required by state and federal employment law, they illegally misclassify people as independent contractors.

Just because you are doesn't mean you are not owed overtime. It is a common practice for salaried workers do not receive overtime for working late, arriving early, or working weekends. It is not always the case but just because your employer designates you as salaried does not mean that your job duties meet the criteria set by the Fair Labor Standards Act for you to be legally exempt from overtime requirements.

Independent Contractors are often legally employees who simply aren't being paid correctly. Another trick that employers have adopted is to misclassify people as independent contractors to avoid minimum wage, overtime and other employment law requirements.

The IRS states: "the general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done."

However, each case is different, and the subtleties require consulting with a legal professional that focuses on these types of questions. At the Minnesota Center for Wage Theft, we can analyze your specific set of facts and determine if in fact you are truly an independent contractor or an employee.

Similar to misclassified workers, misclassifying workers as independent contractors is commonly seen in administrative positions, some computer fields, food delivery drivers, couriers, package delivery services, medical supply delivery services, or other workers classified as independent but are controlled as employees.

The IRS from https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/behavioral-control defines control as:
Behavioral control refers to facts that show whether there is a right to direct or control how the worker does the work. A worker is an employee when the business has the right to direct and control the worker. The business does not have to actually direct or control the way the work is done - as long as the employer has the right to direct and control the work.

The behavioral control factors fall into the categories of:

• Type of instructions given
• Degree of instruction
• Evaluation systems
• Training
• Types of Instructions Given

• When and where to do the work.
• What tools or equipment to use.
• What workers to hire or to assist with the work.
• Where to purchase supplies and services.
• What work must be performed by a specified individual.
• What order or sequence to follow when performing the work.

Has your Minnesota employer not paid you all commissions owed?

In Minnesota, if you are an independent contractor engaged in outside commission sales who has not been misclassified as exempt, you have legal rights if you have not been paid your earned commissions, and you could be entitled to attorney fees and other penalties. These situations can be complex and the devil is often in the details. A thorough analysis is essential.

Minnesota law prohibits retaliation against an employee who files a complaint about an employer's violation of the wage and hour laws. Some common examples of retaliation include:

• Reduction in hours
• Reduction in shifts
• Scheduling bad shifts
• Padding the employee file with fabricated negative reports
• Termination
• Reduction of duties
• Demotion