For a year and a half, I was a barista at a coffee shop (non-chain, “ma and pop”). Because of my prior barista experience, the manager started me at $14.25 an hour instead of the minimum wage of $12. Three months into the job, there was a mass exodus of staff which created a challenging environment; the manager thought I handled it well and that I stepped up, so he decided to reward me and bump my pay to $15 an hour.
A few months later, that manager left for a different job, and soon after that is when COVID struck. I was laid off for three months before returning at the request of the shop owner, let’s call them “Andrew”.
When I came back to the job, Andrew did not send me any new contracts. He did not email me about a new wage, nor did I verbally agree to one. I simply came back to business as usual. However, when I looked at my check I realized I no longer received $15 per hour, I was back to $14.25.
I thought it was a mistake and I didn’t want to start a fuss over it. It was a difficult time to own a business. But what happened next made it clear it’s not an accident.
When I returned, I was one of three baristas and I was working 24 hours per week across 4 days. After a couple months, four new baristas were hired at $12/hour, and I was suddenly cut down to a single 4-hour shift per week (the minimum legally required).
I suspected that I was being driven out to save money, but that he couldn’t legally fire me. Clearly, he intended to fire me the moment I made any infraction.
Just last week, my employment was terminated for “multiple correctives” after I got my first write-up for switching shifts without manager approval (I thought it was approved because I misread a notification in the app. Turns out the owner and manager never even saw the request to switch shifts — however, my replacement showed up for the shift and nobody noticed we switched until I confessed my mistake to avoid confusion).
Obviously, this wouldn’t even come out to a remotely significant amount of money, but it seems illegal to drop my hourly wage without even a verbal warning, let alone a contract with my signature. Am I correct that this situation is wage theft and should I pursue a claim through my state’s labor board?
Submitted December 05, 2020 at 10:21PM by othersbeforeus https://ift.tt/36JiTku
