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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Food Service |
Working salary but not making minimum wage? |
My husband works at a local sushi restaurant as a sushi chef. The only way he could be a chef was if he went full time. But the only way he can be full time is salary. Well my husband took the job but soon realized that he was working 56 hours a week, 6 days a week, with only Mondays off. His boss won't let him take off a day no matter what it is for, because they are understaffed but refuses to hire anyone else. But to top it all off for working 112 hours in two weeks he gets paid a little under 500 dollars. It just doesn't seem right to me. Is there anything than can be done? Also the sushi bar makes tips and the waiters tip out to the sushi bar, but the owner is taking them off the top because he makes 40 dollars in tips in a two week period, and it's been counted over 100 dollars in one night and it's supposed to be split three ways between the sushi chefs (3). What can we do about this? They have qualified him as exempt when he should be non-exempt. If he were in a management role, he could be exempt. However, as a sushi chef, it does not seem he would have any flexibility or control over his hours. If he wants to pursue the matter, he'll need to contact the Department of Labor in his state. They will pursue it. I can't tell you for sure fom your posting, but the situation you described sounds as if it violates Wage and Hour Law. Good luck! Source(s): Human Resource Professional By federal law he is required to make at least minimum wage. If your state has a higher minimum, then he's required by your state law to make at least the state minimum. An employer can't legally pay someone less than that. For a position where the person receives tips, the base wage rate can be lower, but if the tips don't bring that up to the minimum, then the employer must make up the difference. Just calling someone "salaried" does NOT relieve the emploiyer from the obligation to pay minimum wage. You can report this to your state or federal department of labor, and he can be awarded back pay. Your husband might be wise to talk to his employer first and make him aware that he's breaking the law by not paying minimum wage, and that calling him "salaried" doesn't change that. Actually, the law requires the employer to pay him overtime (at time and a half)for hours over 40 per week - the hourly rate to calculate this would be his weekly salary divided by 40. Good luck. What the employer is doing is against the law. Many employers don't understand the law, and think that if they call somone "salaried" then they don't have to follow minimum wage and overtime laws - that isn't correct. I know in CA the minimum "salary" rate an employer can pay is double the minimum wage. An employer cannot arbitrarily assign exempt status to a particular job. Check out the reference below for the Fair Labor Standards Act. The government is very stringent when identifying exempt positions. You should be able to find out a lot more about exemptions which is the only way to make someone salaried. Some of the issues are: Does he have the authority to make major decisions the impact the company? Does he have hire/fire authority? Does he supervise at least two people? Did he hire them? Does he do their performance review? Does he have any say over the budget? Does he purchase food and supplies? Does he control the menu? Is he ultimately responsible for food safety and hygiene? These are all management responsibilities. Running a line in a kitchen where you are following a set menu and just follow the standard precedures does not qualify as management. After you have looked at the job duties and compared them to the "management" criteria in the act. Call the Department of Labor. Tell them what is happening. They can make a better review of the position. If they determine that it is not an exempt position, they will have the owner go back to the beginning of the full time position to calculate the hourly wage plus overtime. Retired HR Manager http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/overti... He needs to take the experience gained as a chef at this job, and try to find a new one! I can imagine how tired he is but he (or you) needs to go job hunting for a new job (for him). I make 10.00 and My checks for 80 hrs are about 625 (after tax), so he is not being compensated fairly. He should quit that job. He would make more money working ANYWHERE else. |
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