One more question for CBG or others

[dan148]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?Florida

I am sorry for throwing all these questions at you today but the more I keep reading in this "Employement Forum" the more I remember situations that occurred and has me thinking.

The first Restaurant where I became a "GENERAL MANAGER" I had an assistant manager who had quit after 2 years of being with the restaurant without giving notice, he just didn't show up!! He was on a salary of $37,500 per year and when he came in to pick up his last check he went crazy in my office. I hadn't seen the check because they are sealed in envelopes, but when he opened it in my office the check was for a full week however, it reflected a minimum hourly wage which I believe was $4.25 or something back then. Can you explain the legalities of that situation please??

 

[JETX]

it reflected a minimum hourly wage which I believe was $4.25 or something back then. Can you explain the legalities of that situation please??

Very simple.... unless there is a contract stating otherwise, an employer is only obligated to pay the minimum federal (or state) wage rate. In this case, that is presumably what they did for the actual number of hours worked.

 

[dan148]

Very simple.... unless there is a contract stating otherwise, an employer is only obligated to pay the minimum federal (or state) wage rate. In this case, that is presumably what they did for the actual number of hours worked.

I understand that in this particular situation because he abanded his job without notice. But is there no law stating that an employer must give ample notice to an employee regarding a decrease in wage change?

 

[cbg]

Dan, until quite recently I believed that under Federal law, an employee must receive prior notice before he could have his wages reduced. However, it was brought to my attention that this is not covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the one who told me this is a former DOL (or possibly IRS - I forget which - Beth, do you remember?) investigator who has forgotten more about the FLSA than I can ever hope to know.

It is true that most states do have such a law. Florida, however, does not appear to. I learned this when I advised a poster to contact the FL DOL (or equivalent - Dept. of Workplace Innovation?) about exactly this situation. He did so, and came back to the board to inform me that they had said that the employer was legal, at least in their state.

So evidently, in your state at least, such a reduction is legal as long as they pay minimum wage. To the best of my knowledge (I could be wrong; it's happened before) FL is the ONLY state where prior notification is not required, and I am still not entirely comfortable with stating that it's NOT required in FL. I can't argue with the state agency responsible for regulating wages, though!

Until I learn for certain that it is NOT so, I will continue to tell employees in the other 49 states that prior notificatioin IS required, as that is what I honestly believe to be true.

BTW, prior notification could be as subtle as a sentence in the employee handbook saying that if notice is not received, the final paycheck will be at minimum wage.

Hope you survived the hurricane okay.

 

[JETX]

But is there no law stating that an employer must give ample notice to an employee regarding a decrease in wage change?

Nope.......

 

[dan148]

Hope you survived the hurricane okay.

We did and thank you for your concern as well as your replies.
JetX thank you also for replying, I have learned so much from this site and I appreciate all the info. Many of you have gone to school for years and paid alot of money for this info and I for one am appreciative to see it available to those of us who are uneducated and naive (did I spell that right?) about the law, no matter how aggresive or judgemental the replies can be (hey sometimes the truth hurts).

Thanks All!!!

 

[JETX]

Thank you for your comments..... and yes, you did spell it correctly.