The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act protects employees’ right to receive fair compensation for their work. It is an essential safeguard against business owners who fail to care for their employees. Among its many protections is a provision that requires all employers to ensure their employees are paid the North Carolina minimum wage. This provision applies to waiters, waitresses, and others who are partly compensated through tips, bonuses, or commissions. If your employer has failed to pay you the North Carolina minimum wage, you have the right to file a civil lawsuit to recover the unpaid difference. You may also recover “double damages” and attorneys’ fees in certain situations involving willful violations.
Understanding the Wage & Hour Act
The best way to understand how a civil lawsuit involving the Wage and Hour Act works is through an example. Assume you have worked forty (40) hours per week for the past twenty-five (25) weeks. Over that time, you have only averaged making $5.00 an hour, rather than the current North Carolina minimum wage of $7.25. You would have been shorted $2.25 an hour for 1,000 hours, entitling you to recover, at a minimum, $2,250.00 in unpaid wages.
Some portions of the Wage and Hour Act punish the employer unless they can show they acted in good faith. Among those provisions is an allowance of “double damages.” This means that if the employer willfully violated the statute, you could recover double the amount of the unpaid wages. In the above example, the employee could have recovered $4,500.00. The Wage and Hour Act also entitles you to recover your attorneys’ fees unless the employer shows good faith.
Minimum Wage for Tipped Employees
One area where minimum wage considerations are particularly prominent is with employees who are compensated with tips. The employer must pay these employees a minimum hourly wage of $2.13. However, the employer must keep accurate records of tips received. If the employee’s tips do not make up the difference so that the employee is being paid minimum wage, the employer must make up that difference. As with any other Wage and Hour claim, if you prove the employer willfully failed to pay you minimum wage, you are entitled to double damages and attorneys’ fees.
Unpaid Wage Claims Attorneys
The North Carolina consumer and personal injury lawyers of Maginnis Howard have handled unpaid wage cases including unpaid tips, travel pay, bonuses, commissions, and paid time off across the state. If you are an employee, we can represent you and will often do so on a contingency basis. You pay no attorneys’ fees until your claim is resolved. All consultations with the firm are offered free of charge. We represent clients across the Carolinas from our Raleigh, Charlotte, and Fayetteville offices.
To speak with an unpaid wages attorney, call the North Carolina law firm of Maginnis Howard at (919) 526-0450. Visit our contact page for more information about our locations and services.
