wage cut

[jumpman86]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

I am asking for my father who works for a restaurant in NJ.

Last Friday, his employer informed the workers that they would be closing down the business in a week and employees would be laid off.

Today, a member of the owner's family informed the workers that their wage would be cut by 40% instead with the restaurant continues to operate. This seems like a tactic to make people quit so that the employer does not have to pay unemployement benefits.

All the workers within this place are hourly workers and they have been working for years without being paid for overtime work (average of 3 hours per day for 5 day week). Currently, they are making ~$1600 wage + $500 tips per month and assuming they work on average an 11 hour day, that is ~$9.5 per hour. If they were to take the 40% pay cut, that would be ~$6.6 per hour.

I wanted to ask what the best option is for the workers at this place. Should they seek a professional lawyer's help or there is not much they can do?

Would going on strike bring attention to this matter?

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Concerned Son

[ecmst12]

He can file for partial unemployment after taking the wage cut. If he quits instead, he won't be able to get any unemployment so he should keep working until he finds something else.

You can't go on strike if you're not in a union. If you're not, you just get fired for not showing up for work.

[pattytx]

You have a number of ancillary issues in your post, but the most glaring is the overtime issue.

You do know that daily overtime is not required in NJ, right? If the nonexempt employees have physically worked over 40 hours in a workweek and have not been paid overtime pay, they should all file claims with the state Dept. of Labor.

If the employees are paid on an hourly basis, the "effective" hourly rate you speak of ($6.60/hr or thereabouts) is irrelevant. You're trying to mix apples and oranges by saying that the employees earn "about" $1600/mo and "about" $500/mo in tips, then saying that the employees are paid on an hourly basis. If such employees receive the equivalent of minimum wage ($7.25/hr) for each hour worked, the MW law is complied with. Directly-tipped employees (such as servers and bartenders), can be paid as little as $2.13 cash wage, as long as their tips for the workweek make up the difference between the cash wage and the minimum wage.

[Erudition]

I had to contact our local workforce development office (unemployment office) for someone here at my office. The departement head that I spoke with said clearly that there is a percentage of pay lost before unemployment will allow for you to quit due to reduced wages and still receive unemployment benefits.

I live in Iowa, our percentage is 15% or more. So, if you dad lost 15% or more of his wages than he could quit his job (here in Iowa) and still receive benefits.

You should check into that for your dad & his friends. BTW, the normal rep's didn't know the answer to my question so they forwarded me around for a while until the head claim review person got on the line.

Hope that helps you out!