If you have not been paid on your regular pay day at any point in the last three years, you could be entitled to an amount of money equal to your wages. Late payment of wages can significantly set you back even if you eventually received your paycheck. That’s why it’s important to speak with an attorney about your rights.

Not only could you be entitled to money, but any other employee who is similarly situated to you who was also not paid on time could be entitled to money. The FLSA has a collective action procedure which allows any one or more employees to come together to vindicate their rights. Once an employee files a claim for a violation of the FLSA, the employee can ask the court for authorization to send a notice to the home of those other similarly situated employees to let them know that they can join the case as well, if they so choose. This is what is called a notice of right to join an FLSA case. Anyone who then joins the employee’s case can also potentially receive an amount of money equal to their wages.

Any employee who takes the initiative to vindicate the rights of other employees similarly situated to them by filing a collective action lawsuit could be entitled to a service award. Service awards typically range between $1,000 and $10,000 depending on factors such as the size of the collective action and how involved the employee was in the litigation. A service award is not guaranteed, but courts do award them in an effort to make sure the employee who made the effort to right the employer’s wrong was compensated for their hard work, time, and bravery. Lawsuits can be time-consuming and take a lot of effort on the part of an employee, but when employees join together through a collective action, they can make quite the impact to improve the conditions of a workplace.

Additionally, the FLSA provides that an employer who violates an employee’s rights must also pay for that employee’s attorney’s fees and costs. That means if your FLSA rights have been violated, your employer must pay your attorney’s fees and the costs of your litigation. You can seek the money you are owed from your employer through a lawsuit at no cost to you.

Even if you do not work for an employer who violated your rights anymore, you can still file a lawsuit to recover damages in the form of money for the late payments of wages that were made to you at any time in the last three years. You do not have to be a current employee to vindicate your rights.

The problem Congress recognized in the 1930s persists today. It is estimated that approximately 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. This is the reality that we live in. When an employee does not receive her or his paycheck on time, it has real world consequences and puts people’s financial stability at risk. This is why it is so important that employees have the power to vindicate their right to be paid on time through the FLSA.

It’s not uncommon for us to hear stories of employees needing to file bankruptcy due to the debt they incurred as a direct result of not being paid correctly under the FLSA. In fact, that is how the Law Offices of Bryan Yaldou began specializing in wage and hour law. Many of our bankruptcy clients were experiencing FLSA violations, and that had a snowball effect which led to the deterioration of their financial stability. The Law Offices of Bryan Yaldou is in a unique position to help employees protect their checks by helping them receive money for their rights being violated at work. If need be, we can also help them file for bankruptcy due to the consequences of late payment of wages.

These late payment of wages cases have recently received a significant amount of media attention due to the 2013 and 2018-2019 federal government shutdowns. In the 2017 case of Martin v. United States, a federal court found that employees who were not paid during the 2013 government shutdown were entitled to money for the paychecks they received late. A similar suit has been filed more recently on behalf of the federal governmental employees who were forced to work without pay during the federal government shutdown. Even though these employees were eventually paid their paychecks, they could still be entitled to a significant amount of money for the government’s failure to pay them on their regular pay day.

Courts have also found that the late payment serving as the basis of the violation did not have to be paid as late as the payments in the federal government shutdown examples. In the case of Athan v. United States Steel, a federal district court in Michigan found allegations that employees were paid one pay period later than their regular payday was enough to go forward with an FLSA case.

While many law firms help employees who have never been paid at all, the Law Offices of Bryan Yaldou specializes in helping employees who were not paid on time, even if they were eventually paid past their payday. These late payment of wages cases present different obstacles which our experienced office knows how to address. We pride ourselves in providing this benefit to our neighbors who trust us to vindicate their rights.

A significant amount of our practice involves helping our clients and the other employees who worked with them receive the money they are owed under the FLSA through collective action cases. FLSA collective action cases are incredibly complex and present a plethora of procedural issues not present in single employee cases. This experience qualifies us to help you and your coworkers with your wage and hour needs.