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Is this(wage) discrimination?

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justjenn

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?Alabama

This is a little complicated, but I'll do my best to include all aspects of my question.

In July of 2004 my husband and I went to work for his brother who is part owner of a company. There are six owners of this company, my husbands brother and his wife and two other couples. The company has been in business for over 15 years and has done quite well. When I started working there I was hired at 9.00 an hour, which I thought (for my experience) was a bit low, but we needed the money. It was difficult working for 3 relatives in the same department. I technically had "3" bosses...dumb move on my part. Anyway, one of the owners husbands also had another company upstairs and an opening for a Controller came up. I applied and was hired immediately. My wages went from 9.00 an hour to 10.00 an hour with a "promise" that was made in front of the HR person that after my 90 days was up he would give me a substantial raise..his words ( I'll take care of you). My review and raise is now 3 months overdue, when I bring it up to HR, they keep telling me that they have reminded him but seems he chooses to ignore the reminders. When I went to work upstairs, there was a man doing the job I was hired to do, he is NOT familiar with accounting procedures and has NO accounting background. Upon my working in that job I found that he wasn't paying the sales taxes, the checkbook was in the negative most of the time he was in that position and the receivables were sitting at 192,000.00. He never sent out statements. There were bills that were so far past due that they were on a COD basis. HE was making 18.00 an hour. I cleaned up the sales taxes, (paid all the penalty's and interest), got the checkbook back into the black, and collected ALL of the 192,000.00 in receivables, paid off ALL the outstanding bills and have gotten everything in the order it should be in. I'm only making 10.00 an hour. In looking at some payroll files in my office, I noticed that ALL the other people (all women except for one male) were making 17.00 to 18.00 an hour. A couple of weeks after I started working there I was put on salary because I was getting overtime. I'm not one that goes to work at 8 and leaves at 5, because I was getting overtime (only averaged a couple hours a week) he put me on salary. Doesn't exempt mean you have to make 455.00 per week?

Now here is the real kicker to this story. My bosses company doesn't pay the wages for the employees (theres 6 of us), his wifes company that is downstairs pays our wages and we are considered leased employees. That company has been having some financial difficulties and the HR department claims that they can't afford to pay much for raises. (I don't even want to tell you how much the owners get). I was told that my raise would not be very much because of this. I am still waiting for my review....my boss told me last Thursday to remind him about my review and that we would go down to the HR Department . I reminded him on Thursday and he putzed around all day, at 4:30 I went to him and said do you want to do my review now, as the HR person is going on vacation and won't be back for a week and a half. He didn't know that and said sure, I'll call her. I left at 5:15 with no review.
He called and left a message on my office phone and stated that the HR person didn't call him back until 5:30. Well I know that's a lie because when I left that day I asked the front desk what time she left, and they said she had left about 10 minutes earlier than me. I'm at a loss as to what to do here, I'm angry that all these other people have made more in this position than I am making, and I have a degree in accounting and business management and none of them did. Guess degrees aren't worth much huh?

Can you please give me some guidance? I'm sorry this was so long but I wanted to give you all the details. I'm ready to go to the wage and hour people and file a complaint. But do I have any grounds for that?

Thank you for your help...
 


A

absconder

Guest
Wages

You cant force an employer to give you a raise. Why do you want to work for such people, with your skills you can do well anywhere. Let him replace you for 10$ an hour. LOL.Moveon.org
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Unless you have a bona fide, enforceable contract that guarantees you a raise at particular times, the only time an employer is legally obligated to give you a raise is if you are working at minimum wage, and minimum wage is raised by either your state legislature or an act of Congress.

What evidence do you have that the other employee was making more than you BECAUSE he is male? That's the only way it would be illegal. If he's being paid more than you because he's not related to the owners, because he's the boss's fishing buddy, because he's a better negotiator than you are, or any other reason unrelated to race, religion, gender, etc. it's legal, no matter how unfair it might be. Since you indicate that there are women as well as men getting paid the higher raise, it's exceedingly unlikely that you can prove illegal discrimination.

No law requires that you be given a review. Ever.

You are, however, correct that as of August 23, 2004, the base pay for an employee to be considered exempt is $455 per week. If you are earning less than this on a regular basis, you cannot be considered exempt even if your job duties qualify you for that status. If you are earning less than $455 per week and are not being paid overtime when you work over 40 hours in a week, you have a legitimate complaint ON THIS ISSUE to put before the wage and hour folks.
 

justjenn

Junior Member
Extension to previous post

I guess I should have made a long story shorter.. My question was (leaving out the raise stuff), would this be considered wage discrimination, since all previous employees in that position made much more than I am? :confused:
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
No. It would not. It doesn't matter how many people are making more than you are; unless it is BECAUSE OF your race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, pregnancy or because you are over 40, it is not illegal discrimination, no matter how unfair you may consider it.
 

justjenn

Junior Member
I have payroll statements showing what all my people make. This is given to me by the accounting department of the other company as a statement every two weeks as we are making payments to them for our payroll. That is how I know how much "he" and all the previous people were making.
 

justjenn

Junior Member
sounds to me employees don't have much of a leg to stand on and are at the employers mercy. That's really sad.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I understand that you know for certain what others make. I understand that you feel it is unfair. I agree that it is unfair.

But you asked whether it was wage discrimination. It is not.

You asked if it was illegal. It is not.

Your only grounds for a complaint with the wage and hour division is on the exempt/non-exempt issue. As long as you are making minimum wage or over and your wage is not determined by your membership in a protected group, which it does not appear to be, your employer has the right to pay you whatever he wishes, regardless of whether it is fair or not.

You have the option of finding another job, any time you want, where your education and skills will be valued appropriately.
 

justjenn

Junior Member
Thanks much for your input, I guess it's time to stay home and be a doggie Mom. It would just be nice to be compensated for experience and knowledge. I'm 57 years old and at this stage of my life it will be difficult to find another job. Even though employers can't discriminate against age, we all know they find ways around that. Have a great day. :)
 

justjenn

Junior Member
I have another quick question however, can 3 owners vote out two of the owners even if there are written contracts?
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Jenn, just for the record, I know of more employers than one who PREFER hiring older workers. They are out there; you just need to find them.
 

justjenn

Junior Member
It is an LLC company. There are 6 investors. Two of the owners have been caught stealing from the company, the other 3 owners (the 4th being silent) want to vote out the two stealers. When they were caught, they (the stealers) told the other three owners that they wanted to buy them out. They were given a year to come up with the thousands of dollars to buy the other 4 out. In the meantime, the four owners have found other things that have gone on in the company that are not legal so they want to rescind the agreement and kick them out( the two stealers)...NOW...
 

pattytx

Senior Member
You may wish to post this in the contract law forum. At this point, employment law is moot and, although you may find someone here who knows the answer, they will most likely advise that they cannot comment about a contract they have not read, and would advise the parties to seek legal advise from a local attorney specializing in contract law.
 

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