The New Jersey Employment Law Firm Blog
Many workers are entitled to payment of a minimum wage and extra pay for overtime work. Workers who believe their employers have failed to pay them the correct amount can recover damages in civil lawsuits under New Jersey employment law. If an employer has falsely classified a worker as an independent contractor instead of an employee to avoid minimum wage or overtime, they may be liable to that worker under state law. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) recently filed a lawsuit against a general contractor and multiple subcontractors involved in a large construction project in Jersey City. The suit alleges wage violations, employee misclassification, and other claims.
New Jersey law currently sets the minimum wage at $15.49 per hour for most employers. This is the minimum rate that must pay to non-exempt workers. Both New Jersey and federal law require time-and-a-half for hours worked over forty in a week; thus, if a non-exempt worker makes $18 per hour and works fifty hours in a week, the employer must pay them $27 per hour for the last ten of those hours worked.
Failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, also known as “wage theft,” may cost workers across the country as much as $50 billion each year. This amount exceeds all other forms of theft, such as burglaries and robberies, combined. Private lawsuits and government regulators only recover a fraction of the amount lost to wage theft.
The public also loses because of wage theft. Worker misclassification alone may cost New Jersey taxpayers around $300 million per year in lost contributions to unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes.
The LWD’s lawsuit attempts to avoid a common problem with wage claims in the construction industry. A construction site can be a chaotic place. The general contractor is in charge of the entire site, but they may delegate various responsibilities to subcontractors, so one company’s employees might perform work under the direction of a different company for at least part of their working hours. Thus, if a dispute arises, each company might (and usually does) argue that another company is liable instead: a general contractor might try to shift responsibility for alleged wage violations onto a subcontractor, while subcontractors may claim that wages fall under the general contractor’s purview. The LWD sued all major companies involved in the project, ensuring that anyone who might be responsible would be present in the case.
The lawsuit asserts six causes of action against all defendants:
– Failure to pay overtime
– Failure to timely pay wages
– Failure to maintain and produce hour and wage records
– Failure to maintain and produce earned sick leave records
– Failure to provide earned sick leave
– Failure to contribute to funds for unemployment, disability, and workforce development
It asserts another three causes of action against certain defendants, including general contractors and subcontractors:
– Failure to pay minimum wage
– Misclassification of employees in the construction industry
– Misclassification of employees generally
The lawsuit also alleges a child labor violation against one subcontractor.
Employees in New Jersey and New York can claim compensation if their employers have violated certain legal rights, including failure to pay minimum wage or overtime. The employment attorneys at the Resnick Law Group are available to help you understand your rights. Please contact us at 973-781-1204 or online today to schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your case.