I work in the service industry and I recently discovered that my coworkers, and I have not been getting our legally due overtime pay. I was honestly only made aware of the issue because one of my newer coworkers raised the issue of not getting paid overtime rates for work. This was some months ago, but I think the buried it in my mind because at the time, I genuinely did read the law wrong I’m pretty sure (I’m sure it’s intentionally made confusing as well).
I think all this was reignited in my mind because I recently asked my other coworker if we get overtime rates for Black Friday, and I ended up looking into the details. I’m not 100%, but all the other workers I asked at my job said that they either don’t get it/ that they’re supposed to get it/ how their employer did some little shifty accounting trick to finesse them out of overtime rates.
I’m consulting a knowledgeable comrade about the laws, but there’s legit no reason as to why would be exempt from being owed our legally due overtime rates. If I filed a wage complaint, I’d most definitely get fired, and who knows how else my boss might retaliate. He does know about my drug usage, and I’m sure he would use whatever information against me that he could. Maybe it’s a bit of a harsh assessment to make, but capitalists will do whatever to protect their bottom line.
Even if as per labour laws you get overtime pay for holidays, black Friday isn’t a legal holiday as far as I’m aware - so you’d get overtime pay after eight hours but probably not before that. It’s still entirely terrible and yet not surprising at all that you don’t get the overtime pay you’re owed. Depending on where you are you may be able to file an anonymous complaint with your local labour regulator, or retain an attorney for free to help you and your coworkers get what you’re legally owed and protect you from some amount of retaliation.
In general, wage theft is estimated to total more in monetary terms than burglaries and robberies, and yet one isn’t spoken about at all and the other is amplified in some regions and times to generate a bit of anxiety and fear. It’s also not surprising at all seeing as the owners of news companies are the same corporate owners who are stealing our wages.
Oh yeah, the thing about Black Friday was that I was asking my coworker if we even got paid extra (I later realized no lol). There are days where I regularly work over 8 hours and I’ve cross checked my and my coworkers hours, and none of us get paid any special rates. It’s all counted as “regular hours”. You could pick out any schedule I have, and there’s a day where I work at least 8 hours. Every last paycheck has hours listed as regular hours, and even the math reflects this. I guess I get tips so that sorta makes up for it, but that 1.5 multiplier has legit been running through my mind since it came to my attention that money was being stolen from us.
More than anything, this experience has really made me lose any sort of sypathy for these “small business” type of people. No matter how nice they might be to no (they’re pretty dickish at times anyway lol), they’ll still exploit you as much as humanly possibly, because after all, they have the lawyers and resources to ruin me. At best, I’ll get caught up up in legal loops for some years, at worst, I get a “wellness check” and get killed.
I’m trying to see ways I can finesse money from them. Nothing illegal, but more collective bargaining kind of stuff… I was able to get a pretty hefty raise out of my boss after I threatened to with hold my labor lol. I think he’s still a bit salty about it lol, but I would need to be a bit more innovative to do it again.
Tips are on top, they are a nice little extra directly from the pockets of (mostly) other workers, but they do not make up for nor replace your legal wages from your employer.
I’d seriously look in to an employment lawyer, many really do take clients pro bono and it can really be worth the time and effort to get what’s legally yours.
Small businesses are just as bad as big businesses.