Minimum Wage=Truckers Rights ??

Waitstaff gets min wage no matter what. If they do not make tips to bring them over min wage, their employer MUST pay them more money to make them get min wage.

I read it last night waiting to get unloaded. It was right next to a New Mexico OSHA/Labor thing saying how driving is like, wow, dangerous, and to make sure the folklift is OUT of your trailer before you pull from the dock.

 

Maybe where you're from, but I assure you that is not true everywhere.

 

This has been brought up by several people. The federal minimum wage law says that the employer has to pay minimum wage if the tips don't bring the employee up to minimum wage status.

 

http://www.dol.gov/wb/faq26.htm

 

Thanks Mooney, good information. I see a lot of potential for abuse though.
As a former tipped employee, I know it is quite common for for these workers to under report or not report their tips in an effort to reduce their taxes.
Now they have an extra incentive to hide their tips- to cheat their employer.

 

Yeah, but it's actually pretty easy to tell if someone is shaving tips too much. Especially with credit cards these days, you have a way to find a rough average per customer for that person, rough average per customer of all the staff, and once you know that, either that person sucks or is shaving tips.

On the other hand, you're also cheating yourself. Workman's comp, unemployment, etc are calculated on your wages. If you underreport tips, it affects those things.

 

Good point, not to mention one not pulling their weight to the point where the employer is constantantly supplementing their wage will probably get let go anyway.(in an "at will" state anyway)

 

#### it! we do have rights! I was informed of mine once before.

You have the right to remain silent...etc!

 

Before all of you get angry at me and tell me your stories.... When it comes to minimum wage, all you have to do is file on the state level and your employer has to either pay or balk. If he or she balks, it goes to hearing usually. The law is clear: They have to pay at least minimum wage. Most of the time the company just pays it. But Im not saying that you couldnt loose your job either over the issue. There are no exemptions for interested commerce, in fact its just the opposite; the law better applies to you if you are involved in interested commerce. Keep in mind that paying you minimum wage is for the whole week. So if you earned more than minimum wage for the weeks in question, you wont get anything.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/blminimumwage.htm

 

Just a little confusion clarification here:
If you are an INTERSTATE driver (you drive across state lines) you are EXEMPT from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA).
If you drive INTRASTATE, you are NOT exempt from the FSLA.
Some states, such as Washington do not allow ANY exemption from the FSLA, re: a recent Washington Superior Court decision against Interstate Distributors, ruling that even the INTERSTATE drivers were covered under the FSLA and were due BACK WAGES and OVER-TIME for hours worked over 40.

http://www.bs-s.com/CM/Files/Larry-Westberry-v-Interstate-Distributor.pdf