Wage Theft and Wage Payment Laws

New Jersey recently passed several new wage laws as part of the Wage Theft Act.  Under this new law, employees have important new rights if an employer fails to pay wages or breaches an agreement to pay commissions.  The new law also protects employees who are retaliated against for complaining about or blowing the whistle on unlawful pay.  about or Under the new laws, employees can be entitled to recover their lost wages, plus a 200% penalty in some circumstances.  In addition to treble damages, employees can now recover their attorney’s fees.  Employees can now recover unlawful wages going back six years.  The law also now has greater penalties for discriminatory unequal pay.

Overtime Laws require employers to pay 1½ times an employee’s hourly rate for any hours worked over 40 hours. Under some circumstances, an employer may offer compensation time in lieu of overtime, but even in those cases, the compensation time must be provided at 1½ times the standard hourly rate. Some employees may be exempt from overtime laws.  There are also minimum laws which provide heavy penalties to employers who refuse to pay minimum wages.

Employers do not have to pay certain employees who fall into categories such as upper managers, commissioned sales employees, computer professionals, and certain farm workers. If you have questions regarding whether your employment is exempt from overtime, please give us a call and we can discuss the specifics of your job and help you determine whether your employer should be paying overtime. There are numerous other laws relating to Wage & Hour, including the New Jersey Wage Payment Act which requires wages to be paid on time and at periodic intervals, prevailing wage laws that provide much higher minimum wages for employees working on certain government projects, and laws that protect wages that are included in certain contracts. If you are concerned that you are not being paid properly, we can help.