Do I have rights to my unpaid wages and, if so, how?
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Do I have rights to my unpaid wages and, if so, how?
I worked for a company for 10 months and left 9 months ago. An ex-co-worker just informed me that my old manager did not make adjustments to our paychecks as he was supposed to. I compared each paycheck to the hours I worked and have found several pay periods where proper adjustments were not made for me so I was not paid for many hours worked. Sometimes full days and several pay periods the unpaid hours would be overtime pay. This company uses paylocity time clock/punch into track hours worked each week. We are given a set schedule each month to follow. For many different reasons employees forgetting to clock in because their late, or the internet being down, computer broke, customers arrive early, the manager moved to the new property, the list goes on and on the employees did not use paylocity to track their hours worked. When that would happen we would text, call or email or manager advising him of what happened and what changes needed adjustments and he would do them so we would have the correct hours on our time cards to be paid. This company rule is never approve your timecard if it’s not correct so I never did. If we do not approve our timecards then our manager won’t approve it to be paid but he always approved it even if we did not and he would move on with his day. I assumed that once I informed my manager of what adjustments needed to be done that they were done and I was paid correctly. Well, this was not the case and any adjustments were not done. Over $1000 in wages are owed to me from not being paid all the hours each pay period that I worked. I did not follow up on my paychecks as I should have. I did keep copies of every schedule I worked and copies of each paystub as well. I may even have some emails or text messages to my manager advising him of adjustments needing to be done. I know it’s been a long time since I worked there but can I get paid for these hours? I’m unsure where to go from here with this claim.
Asked on April 2, 2019 under Employment Labor Law, Arizona
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
You can either file suit in small claims court or file a wage complaint with your state's department of labor. If you go to small claoms, you are entitled to your past wages as well as any related court costs.
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
If your former employer refuses to pay what you are owed, you can file a lawsuit for breach of contract / account stated. You can file the lawsuit against your former employer in small claims court. Your damages ( monetary compensation you are seeking in your lawsuit) are the amount you are owed.
Upon prevailing in the case, you can also recover court costs which include the court filing fee and process server fee.
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