SrsBidness28
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Minnesota
I am currently employed as a contract employee, and I recently found out that another contract employee recently discovered that the last two contracts he has taken with the temp agency had an interesting situation. Basically, he was quoted one rate that the job paid, and the company he was contracted to paid a higher rate. I am referring here to the base pay rate, which the temp agency then charges a markup on, not the combination of the base pay rate and the markup. The first incident he stumbled upon when he inadvertently found the service agreement between the temp agency and the company regarding his assignment. He found it in the middle of a stack of documents he had printed off. The second incident was more straightforward - he flat out asked his boss what they told him he was being paid, and again he found there was a significant difference between what his employer was being quoted for a base rate and what he actually got.
Where this becomes concerning for me is what happened when I interviewed for my current position. I interviewed for the position when it was offered at one rate, and before the temp agency would officially extend the offer, they asked if I would be willing to work for a rate that was significantly reduced. After some thinking, I decided to take the reduced rate. I would normally attribute that to me making a bad decision, but I recently overheard my boss discussing the potential for raises for all eight contractors working under him, and he told someone that we all made over a certain amount. The amount he stated would represent a significant raise for me (and all but one of the other contractors), and that was before any raise he would be considering.
I know the temp agency has gotten themselves into trouble for shady practices and outright violations of labor law, but they have tried to explain it away as misunderstandings (I directly asked them about two other incidents I had read about before talking to them about the position.) I would not put it past them to quote one rate to the companies they work with and another for the candidates they place.
So, basically, my question is whether or not there is a legal issue with the rate differential? If so, is it one where I have standing or an overbilling issue for the employer?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can provide.
-SrsBidness
I am currently employed as a contract employee, and I recently found out that another contract employee recently discovered that the last two contracts he has taken with the temp agency had an interesting situation. Basically, he was quoted one rate that the job paid, and the company he was contracted to paid a higher rate. I am referring here to the base pay rate, which the temp agency then charges a markup on, not the combination of the base pay rate and the markup. The first incident he stumbled upon when he inadvertently found the service agreement between the temp agency and the company regarding his assignment. He found it in the middle of a stack of documents he had printed off. The second incident was more straightforward - he flat out asked his boss what they told him he was being paid, and again he found there was a significant difference between what his employer was being quoted for a base rate and what he actually got.
Where this becomes concerning for me is what happened when I interviewed for my current position. I interviewed for the position when it was offered at one rate, and before the temp agency would officially extend the offer, they asked if I would be willing to work for a rate that was significantly reduced. After some thinking, I decided to take the reduced rate. I would normally attribute that to me making a bad decision, but I recently overheard my boss discussing the potential for raises for all eight contractors working under him, and he told someone that we all made over a certain amount. The amount he stated would represent a significant raise for me (and all but one of the other contractors), and that was before any raise he would be considering.
I know the temp agency has gotten themselves into trouble for shady practices and outright violations of labor law, but they have tried to explain it away as misunderstandings (I directly asked them about two other incidents I had read about before talking to them about the position.) I would not put it past them to quote one rate to the companies they work with and another for the candidates they place.
So, basically, my question is whether or not there is a legal issue with the rate differential? If so, is it one where I have standing or an overbilling issue for the employer?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can provide.
-SrsBidness
