Wage and Hour Class Actions

Resolving Wage & Hour Disputes through Class Action

Class action litigation is a significant part of our employment law practice. At Outten & Golden LLP, we seek to curb systemic economic abuse of workers through wage and hour violations including overtime and minimum wage violations; off-the-clock practices (not paying workers for all time worked); time shaving; misclassification of employees; tip theft, misappropriated service charges, and other wage and hour claims on behalf of restaurant workers; and unlawful deductions from wages. From our offices in New York and Connecticut, we represent groups of employees in wage and hour class actions on the East Coast and nationwide.

Holding Employers Accountable for Denying Compensation

Some employers refuse to pay employees for “off-the-clock” work that involves putting on required uniforms and safety equipment, booting up computer systems, performing tasks at home, travelling to and from work, or reviewing important information at the beginning of the day. Likewise, at the end of the day, some employers do not to count removing uniforms or safety equipment, shutting down systems, and other essential tasks as compensable work. Because these functions are often a necessary part of the job, employees are usually entitled to payment for their time performing them.

When employers allow employees to record the time they work, employers sometimes “edit” time records to shave time and eliminate overtime. This is wage theft and violates federal and state wage and hour laws.

Companies routinely misclassify workers, even low wage workers, as exempt from federal and state labor laws in order to avoid paying them overtime and minimum wages - information technology workers (“IT” workers), financial services employees, mortgage brokers, loan processors, retail assistant managers, marketing representatives, construction project managers, pest eliminators and exterminators, appliance repair people, and many others. Workers’ duties, not their titles, are what determine whether they are covered by the wage and hour laws. And the fact that a worker is paid a “salary” does not exclude her or him from labor law protection.

Restaurants routinely exploit their servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, and kitchen workers by failing to pay them overtime and minimum wages, stealing their tips, misappropriating service charges that customers intend for them, and making unlawful deductions from their wages for uniforms and other expenses.

If an employer fails to pay employees for wages or overtime earned, those employees may be entitled not only to additional pay, but also to liquidated damages and interest. We represent employees across a wide array of industries in efforts to help them recover compensation class actions in which they are entitled under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law and other state wage and hour laws.

Contact Us

For help with a wage and hour claim, we invite you to contact us to schedule an appointment with an employment class action litigation attorney experienced in wage and hour matters. We do not charge for such a consultation.

Practice Group Leadership: Adam T. Klein, Justin M. Swartz , and Rachel Bien