reduced wage after quitting

[darw_n]

What is the name of your state? ohio

I was a manager at a ohio based restarant. Upon seperating myself (quitting) I recieved my final paycheck for minimum wage.

A couple of points:

The paycheck was for the previous payperiod, not the pay period in which I quit.

They have a stipulation in there handbook that talks about this; stating "if an employee leaves without notice we only have to pay at the state minimum wage for the last payperiod worked. "

They had me sign an acknolegement form for the handbook, but I never received a handbook, I had to sign it to get a particular paycheck (they ran out, never printed more)

Granted, I signed the agreement (my mistake, but I trusted them), however, it stipulates the last pay period worked. I quit on the first monday of the pay period, I did not quit in the payperiod in which the check is for. I simply was not clocked in yet, because I was still in route, and have phone records showing the time when I called to talk to my employee's to coordinate the mornings activities for them. Wouldn't that suffice as making that monday the "last pay period"?

And I am not even certain that you can legal adjust wages after the work has been completed, and the work week finished without incident.

any words on this would be helpfull.

 

[Beth3]

You are right that an employer cannot retro-actively reduce wages. In the event an employee's wages are reduced, the employee must be notified before beginning to work any hours at the reduced rate. Since the employer did advise you of their policy, even if you didn't receive a copy of the handbook, then you were notified in advance but if the employer has violated their policy and prematurely reduced your wages, you may contact your State's department of labor or the federal DOL and file a complaint.

 

[darw_n]

So if i completed the previous work week without incident, and quit after making several business related phone calls on the next week, than the reduced wage can only apply on those few moments in which business calls were made (showing that I actually did work, however breifly, on the next work week). This is according to there regulations I believe.

Am I correct in this?

 

[Beth3]

Since I don't know how your employer defines the "last pay period worked," I can't answer that question. It could be a two week or even 15 day period.

I think policies like this are very ill-advised but I can see why your employer is applying that policy to the actual last week you worked, not the last 15 minutes. Whether they can get away with that is something you're going to have to let the DOL decide.