Are You a Wage-Theft Victim?

Hi, I’m Danny Karon, your Lovable Lawyer here with your quick shot of legal wellness. Do you know what wage theft is? It’s when your employer doesn’t pay you what they owe you for the time you worked. Now that might be a function of, you know, putting on an outfit and taking it off, and you’re not paid for that. Or maybe it’s setting up a piece of equipment and you’re not paid for that. Well, my experience with wage theft came in the context of a lawsuit I had against a major, major nationwide health club chain. I tell you about it because I want you to think of some similarities that might have affected you.

Now what happened in my case was this club has group fitness instructors, folks who teach spinning and yoga and Pilates. They made them show up 15 minutes early to set up class. They made them teach for 60 minutes and then they made them stick around 15 minutes afterward to clean up, to talk to guests, to schlep towels, even though they had a cleaning crew. The problem was they only paid them for the 60 minutes of teaching time. See the promise was when they got hired, they were going to get paid by the hour, not by the project, not a piece-rate it’s called, rather by the hour. Meaning, 90 minutes of pay is what they wrote, yet they only received 60.

So, my client called me up and we sued a class action against the health club. After a couple years of real tough fighting, we were finally able to settle the case and get group fitness instructors a lot of money back for the time they weren’t paid, yet were promised. In some cases, several thousands of dollars.

Think about yourself. Think about things you might have not been paid for. I mean a lot of times it’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable, you don’t want to say anything, you don’t want to stir the pot. Maybe you’re wrong, maybe you don’t do the math, you get lazy because you’re getting a paycheck. But you know what? It matters and it is a big deal. Wage theft is a real big deal. Make sure it doesn’t happen to you and if it does, you have a choice. Say something or say nothing but it’s from a place of information.

That’s today’s shot of legal wellness. If you’d like to learn more, please subscribe to my YouTube channel or visit me at yourlovablelawyer.com. Until next time, I’m Danny Karon, your Lovable Lawyer.