When You’ve Suffered Wage Theft

At the Law Offices of Moss & Hough, we focus exclusively on representing employees. We bring decades of experience in helping you when your employer engages in wage theft or otherwise violates labor laws and regulations. We fight for employee compensation with a wide range of employment law issues. Below, we discuss violations of your rights to proper compensation.

Wage Theft Violations

The Law Offices of Moss & Hough specializes in representing workers who are not properly paid. In the past, we have represented both individuals and groups who have not received, among other things, minimum wages, overtime wages, meal and rest breaks, vacation pay, and reimbursable expenses required by law. Past clients include wait-staff and bus staff; computer technicians and IT help desk personnel; salesclerks; office clerks; hairdressers and salon staff; housekeepers; truck drivers; RNs, LVNs and dental hygienists; and residential apartment managers.

There are several types of Labor Code violations that employers abuse. They include misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime; requiring employees to work “off the clock;” missed meal and rest breaks; unreimbursed business expenses; failure to pay out vacation time on termination and related conduct.

Examples Of Wage And Hour Law Cases

• Residential Care Workers:
  This class of businesses and their employees provide residential care services for the developmentally disabled, Alzheimer patients and elderly. The facilities are usually single-family dwellings with eight bed capacity and require 24/7 attendants who stagger shifts each week and sleep at the residence. The employees are often the victims of egregious wage theft because they are not paid for all hours worked despite being “on-call” all night and required to attend to residents on a 24/7 basis. We have represented several groups of these care givers obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid overtime and waiting time penalties.
• Information Technology (IT) Technicians:
  One of our clients was employed on a salary basis as an IT Technician for a manufacturer and worked more than 60 hours per week every week making sure that company computers were up and running, and solving employee problems/questions. Although she earned a relatively high annual salary, she was misclassified as exempt from overtime. The law requires that to be exempt, an IT Professional must hold an advanced degree and earn at least $47.81 per hour. Many people in this field are misclassified, underpaid and not entitled to overtime wages. The client was paid $80,000 in compensation for unpaid overtime.
• Retail Associates/Clerks:
  We filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of retail associates/clerks working for a nationwide shoe retailer. This company misclassified its employees as “managers” when they did not supervise two or more full-time employees, and spent most of their time selling shoes to customers and stocking shelves rather than engaging in management duties. These “managers” were not paid for all of the overtime hours they worked and were not provided with proper meal and rest breaks. The class of approximately 50 employees shared a 2.2 million settlement.
• Hairdressers:
  Law Offices of Moss & Hough has had several class-action suits against the salon industry. Some salons illegally deduct overhead expenses such as hair color and shampoo from the wages of their commission-based employees forcing employees to bear the overhead costs of the salon. These businesses often structure their employees’ schedules such that they rarely receive meal and break times and are not properly paid the overtime hours they work.

Although the industries in which these clients work are different, many of their claims are similar. As you can see from our current and past clients, we have the experience and determination to fight for individuals (or groups) against companies that are illegally exploiting them.

Contact Us Today

Our attorneys know what it takes to fight for individuals against employers who have wronged them. If you think you have suffered wage theft, or that your wage and hour rights have been violated, connect with our firm for a free initial consultation concerning your case. Call 415-653-7009 or fill out our online form.