Employees might be entitled to back pay based on several federal and state laws.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that entitles employees to a minimum wage and overtime wages. When employers don’t give employees at least the minimum wage and overtime wages when required, employees might be able to receive FLSA back pay for the wages they missed out on. However, there is an FLSA statute of limitations, or deadline, on an employee’s ability to claim those wages.
What is back pay?
在获得FLSA扣除薪酬时效时效法规之前，让我们确保返还薪酬的定义很明确。
Back pay is wages you failed to pay an employee in the past and still owe. Specifically, back pay is the difference between what you paid and what you should have paid.
Employee back pay can include unpaid:
- 最低工资
- 加班工资
- promised wage increases
您可能欠员工退还薪水，因为您不小心支付了错误的工资。或者，您可能会欠薪水，因为您故意违反了工资法。
FLSA provisions for recovering back pay
TheFLSA allowsfour methods for recovering back pay.
- The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor supervises the payment of back wages.
- The U.S. Secretary of Labor can bring a lawsuit forward for back wages and liquidated damages.
- 雇员可以提起私人诉讼，要求偿还薪水，违约损失，律师费和法院费用。
- The U.S. Secretary of Labor can get an injunction to restrain any person from violating the FLSA, including unlawful practices that could result in back pay.
An employee can not bring forward a lawsuit under the FLSA if they were already paid back wages under the supervision of the Wage and Hour Division. Also, an employee cannot file a lawsuit if the Secretary of Labor has already filed a suit to recover the wages.
FLSA扣除限制法规
The FLSA has a statute of limitation to recover back pay. This means an employee must file their suit within a certain amount of time after the wage violation. After the back pay statute of limitations, the employee can no longer claim their back wages.
Generally, there is a two-year statute of limitations after the wage violation occurs. If your business had ongoing wage violations, an employee can recover wages for the two years prior to filing the claim. The employee cannot receive back wages for violations that go back further than the statute of limitations.
If you willfully violate the FLSA, there is a three-year statute of limitations.
Statute of limitations example
Vince began working at ACME Corp on April 1, 2014. His job requires him to work occasional overtime. Even though Vince receives a salary, he is anonexempt employee。这意味着Acme Corp必须为他的额外工作支付加班工资。但是，Acme Corp从不支付Vince的加班工资。
On November 1, 2017, Vince files a claim to attempt to get back wages for his FLSA unpaid wages for overtime. At this point, Vince has worked at ACME Corp for a little over three and a half years.
Because of the FLSA statute of limitations, Vince cannot receive back wages for his entire duration of employment at ACME Corp. He can only collect back wages for overtime pay he was owed in the two years prior to his claim. He can get back pay for wages owed between November 1, 2015, and November 1, 2017.
If ACME Corp willfully violated the FLSA overtime laws, then the three-year back wages statute of limitations would apply. Vince could receive back wages for owed overtime pay between November 1, 2014, and November 1, 2017.
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本文的原始出版日期为2012年5月1日。
This is not intended as legal advice; for more information, please点击这里。