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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Law & Legal |
Is it legal to decrease someones pay? |
My husband's friend is working @ this place for yrs. He was recently demoted from his job to a lesser job & his pay was decreased after 14 yrs. I thought this was illegal. Another thing, his boss gave his evaluation to the higher up boss & 4 times that boss told his boss to do it over. He had to keep doing it over until he said soomething negative about the guy so this other boss could demote him. I think it's awful. His boss felt terrible because Ed is such a great worker, but his boss too finally got demoted as well. I didn't think a company could decrease one's pay for no reason. Ed's boss was forced to give a bad evaluation. Should he be reported to the Labor Board? I think this higher up boss should be fired. Let's see how he likes it. My husband is so disgusted with the situation. Yeah, thats illegal. They can put him to a lesser job but the pay HAS to be the same. It is NOT illegal. The company has the right to set their employee's pay scale. Now, if he had a specific pay contract, then he might have a case of breach of contract. Or if they lowered his pay below minimum wage, there is a case. Other than that, he could go for unfair business practice, or discrimination. Technically, while being a rotten thing to do, I don't see anything illegal. Technically I don't see that they did anything illegal, but certainly unethical. You mention a Labor Board, if the employees work under a union scenario, then you can file a grievance. There are always 2 sides to every story, and I doubt you have 100% of the details. As mentioned above, there is probably nothing illegal with this move. However, there could be an adverse impact situation here - take a look at the demographics of the employees who were demoted. If the company has 'harmed' a particular protected group, there could be an issue. Probably just a situation of the climate of the company changing and higher expectations. It is not illegal for a company to re-classify an employee into a different position and/or a lower pay grade. I agree that this is a terrible management practice, but in itself, it's not an illegal one. Where legality COULD come into play would be if all of the folks being demoted were in a particular class of minority, gender or age - for example, if they demoted folks over 40 and replaced them with 25-year-olds. Keep in mind that likely you are seeing only one side of the story. It is legal to decrease pay by the amount given for a promotion when an individual steps back down. It is also legal to quit your job and go work someplace else for better pay -- thus most businesses won't demote someone without good reason. You can go to the Labor board until you're blue in the face-it isn't illegal to cut wages in any state...and never has been. You may not think it's right, but a company can pay what it wishes as long as it complies with the minimum wage. If your husband's friend is so disgusted he should look for another job. |
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