At some point in your working life, you have likely found yourself working long hours in order to complete necessary duties. Though the extra work may have added some additional stress to your day, your position may have allowed you the opportunity to earn some overtime pay. Many individuals find the added compensation useful and a nice perk for their extra efforts. Though some workers may consider overtime pay a form of compensation that applies to everyone, certain stipulations exist as to whether employees may earn overtime pay. As a result, you may want to ensure that your employer has not violated wage and hour laws by keeping such pay from you. Several exemptions exist that may legitimately remove the opportunity for overtime pay. Executive Exemption If you hold an executive position at your place of employment, you may not qualify for overtime compensation. However, simply holding the title of an executive does not immediately…Read More
Employees are granted many rights when they are hired by a company. It may feel as though your employer is this monolithic behemoth that has all of the power in the employment relationship, but this simply isn’t true. They have many rules, laws and regulations that they must follow, and they can’t treat you unfairly just because they are a big player in the industry. Employees are granted protection from discrimination in its many forms; they are free from harassment of any kind; they are protected against retaliatory actions by their employer; and they also have the right to fair pay and wages for the time they have worked. In relation to that last point: sometimes employers will not pay their employees for the time they worked, either by accident or on purpose. Maybe the company is poor at tracking their payroll or keeping financial records. Maybe there was a glitch during payroll processing. Or maybe, they…Read More
“I Can Turn Anyone Into A Successful Real Estate Investor, Including You.” -Donald Trump With these words, Donald Trump lured consumers to Trump University, believing that they could become successful real estate investors. Between 2005 and 2010, Trump University operated as a real estate investment training program that charged students between $1,500 for a three day course to $35,000 for an “Elite” experience. In advertisements, Trump University promised that students would learn from Donald Trump’s “handpicked experts”, who Trump himself described in videos as “terrific people, terrific brains, successful, the best.” For many students who attended Trump University, these promises went unfulfilled. As a result, two class action lawsuits were filed in California Federal Court and one lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General of New York, on behalf of thousand of students. Low v. Trump University, LLC, filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern California, was a class action suit that alleged that…Read More
It’s no secret that wage gaps exist between genders and races. Closing that gap seems to have stalled since the 1980s. Women earn 79 cents to every dollar earned by men, on average. And for black and Hispanic women it is even lower at 64 and 55 cents. Why do these wage disparities still exist and what can be done about them? Also, if we know they exist, how come there aren’t more class action lawsuits for wage discrimination? The Justification For Wage Disparity Not all wage gaps are a result of discrimination. Some are legitimate, based on seniority, years of experience, education and experience with a competitor. But if those disparities in salary cannot be explained by those factors, they may be violations of equal pay laws – even if they are unintentional. Unfortunately, systemic wage gaps by gender or race often go undetected. Workers in our culture do not talk about their salaries or what…Read More
When considering wage and hour violations, wage deductions for costumes or uniforms don’t immediately come to mind. This type of employment law violation, however, is more common then you’d think. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently resolved a case involving improper paycheck deductions for uniforms and other expenses. A DOL investigation found that two Walt Disney Co. subsidies in Florida violated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provisions pertaining to minimum wage, overtime pay and record-keeping. The company now owes $3.8 million in back pay to 16,339 employees of Disney Vacation Club Management Corp. and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. Inc. This lawsuit against Walt Disney Co. illustrates how wage and hour laws can protect employees. In this situation, federal law prohibits payroll deductions from causing employees’ salaries to fall below minimum wage. If this had not occurred, the costume/uniform deductions would have fallen within FLSA guidelines. In addition to employee protections under FLSA, there are also…Read More
There are many different forms of insurance that you can buy as an individual, and within these different types are myriad options for the policies themselves. Life insurance is one type of insurance, and it also has myriad options — such as term life insurance, universal life insurance and variable life insurance. Life insurance is a major investment for any individual or family. It takes a lot of thought and organization to even acquire life insurance, let alone the personal organization you will need to maintain your policy and ensure that it is covering you and your loved ones in the way you want it to. What we are getting at here is that life insurance is an involved and important process, one that people and families end up counting on later in life, or even in an emergency scenario. These are not situations where people want their insurance company to turn around and mitigate their…Read More
A condominium complex had damage to its exterior, so the homeowners association in charge of the complex hired a construction firm, Saarman Construction, to repair the complex. Water damage was a major reason for the construction project. But about four years after the project was complete, water damage was visible at the complex, and one of the tenants sued the homeowners association and the construction firm. The homeowners association also sued Saarman Construction. Saarman’s insurance company, Ironshore Specialty Insurance, refused to defend Saarman in the case with the tenant (the lawsuit between Saarman and the homeowners association was settled out of court). Ironshore cited a mold contingency in their policy for the reason. However, a federal court recently ruled that Ironshore’s actions represented a breach in their arrangement with Saarman. The court said that because water damage was the cause of the mold, the policy would have covered Saarman even if mold wasn’t present. This…Read More
Statistics show that students at for-profit colleges like DeVry are a LOT more likely to default on student loans than other college students. In fact, despite that only ten percent of all college students attend for-profit colleges, those students account for more than a third of all student loan defaults. Last year, the Department of Education released statistics that demonstrate that students at for-profit schools are the least likely to pay back any portion of their student loans. While 70% of students at public colleges paid at least $1 toward their student loans over a three year period, just 46% of for-profit college students paid anything toward their loan obligations. What Is The Reason For This High And Disproportionate Default Rate? The explanation is a predictable cycle that colleges like DeVry are well aware of: DeVry spent more than $100 million in three years to advertise on television, radio, YouTube, social media, and print to establish a…Read More
For-profit colleges often advertise and recruit students with a message of hope. That is, these colleges show commercials about hard-working people with children who had better lives and were better able to provide for their children after graduating. In addition, for-profit colleges have gotten in trouble, like DeVry, for advertising false statistics to back up their claims. A recent study conducted by the Center for Responsible Lending examined the student loan burden of college students in Maine. The result? For-profit colleges target lower income students and put them in heavier debt than other colleges. The study examined students in 39 colleges in Maine: 15 public non-profit colleges, 13 private non-profit colleges, and 11 for-profit colleges. Based on the demographics and debt loads of over 56,000 students that populate those colleges, the study found the following: That for-profit colleges disproportionately disadvantaged students who were low-income, female, and African-American. The report revealed that for-profit colleges “targets” low income students…Read More
You are probably aware that DeVry reached a $100 Million settlement with the FTC last year because of their deceptive ads. In fact, you may have already received a portion of the $49.5 million that went to students who were harmed, or part of the $50.6 million allotted for debt relief and fee reimbursement. But did you know that even if you received FTC settlement money, you may still be entitled to additional money from DeVry? California Consumer Protection Laws You read that correctly. The reason that you may be owed money beyond the FTC settlement is this: (1) the FTC lawsuit was based on Federal laws; and (2) DeVry’s settlement with the federal government did not relieve the company of liability under the laws of California. In fact, the State of California has very strong consumer protection laws, including: Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA). The intent of the CLRA is “to protect consumers against unfair and…Read More
