Many years ago, I was working as a telemarketer selling security systems. I worked in a call center, with the hours of 10am-8pm. We were given two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break throughout the day, which we were told was unpaid.
Our pay was $290 (minimum wage @ 40 hours) + commission per week, on a draw so that if we didn’t sell enough to make the $290 it would come out of any extra we got in subsequent weeks.
I had a bad feeling about the job because I had never been asked to fill any sort of paperwork out at all. No tax forms, no NDA, nothing. After a few months of working there, they started having us come in some Saturdays and at 9am instead of 10am – but our pay did not increase.
At this point, I started looking up the Fair Wage laws and found that what they were doing was completely illegal. First, the 15 minute breaks must be paid, and also they had failed to ever pay us overtime. I told a couple friends, and eventually got so fed up that I quit the job.
After quitting, my final paycheck was short a full week’s worth of pay, and the manager said “That’s to make up for the draw”.
I filed a complaint with the board of labor immediately, and about a month later I got a frantic call from the manager asking how many hours I had worked there. I told him that it was his responsibility to keep records of what employees had worked there, but thankfully I had kept track of my start/end date, so I just gave him an estimate that came out to be 55 hours/week for the duration.
A friend of mine who still worked for the company said they had been shut down by the government for defrauding their employees, had to pay a huge fine, and we were all getting back pay.
A few months later, I got a check for about $1,500 in the mail. I hated working there, but I felt pretty good about the whole thing after the end. =)
Why you pay your employees what they have earned.
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Wolfytot 