Know The Federal Minimum Wage Act 2009 and U.S. Labor Laws
Know The Federal Minimum Wage Act 2009 and U.S. Labor Laws
Federal Minimum Wage 2009
The federal minimum wage has been allocated at $7.25 per hour from July 24, 2009 onwards. As decided, in all the states of the United States, the workers should be paid minimum $7.25 per hour. In Washington, D.C., the workers must be paid $8.25 per hour.
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 works out to be approximately $1,200 per month before tax. If the worker works 40 hours per week and deduction of tax is considered to be about 24 percent as per the area, the worker is left with less than $1,000 per month for taking home. As a result, the minimum wage earner becomes dependent on tax free payday loans to support his family.
What is the Lower Limit?
The problem of minimum wage becomes even more critical for workers who are paying rent. States like Colorado allocates their minimum wage based on inflation. As such, their minimum wage works out to $7.24 an hour which is lower than the federal minimum wage. It is not only illegal, but it also reflects the state of the economy.
The principle of minimum wage based on inflation is fine if the economy is healthy. In reality the economic status of most of the states is alarming implying that if the minimum age in the state is lowered, the workers would be compelled to take pay cuts. The concept of the federal state to lower the minimum age is a disaster; because of the unemployment crisis and workers are unable find any alternative but take up jobs of lower pay.
Result of Evading Federal Minimum Wage
It is a great relief that states like Colorado are bound by law to pay Federal minimum wage, even if they intend to pay lower wage. It has also been identified that some business houses try to evade paying the federal minimum wage to the workers. They are severely penalized.
As per judgment given by the court, Southern California Maid Service and Carpet Cleaning Inc. must pay $3.5 million to their employees by Nov. 12th. There are reports that Southern California Maid Service and Carpet Cleaning Inc. owners had to spend five days in jail when they failed to pay the minimum wage to the workers.
Southland residential cleaning service owners who refused to obey the order of the court were arrested and later on release. In turn, they had to pay $3.5 million in back wages, in addition to fines, interest and liquidated damages to not less than 385 workers.
Malady of Misinterpretation
In Memphis the Tasty Buffet owners were forced to pay fine due to their incapability to pay the minimum wage to the workers. When the owners could not pay the original fixed fine, the penalty was doubled to $459,658. The employers pleaded that they did not interpret the labor law properly and that they did provide food and lodging to the workers over their wages.
Exceptions to Federal Minimum Wage
There are few exceptions where the employers can pay lower than federal minimum wage. The few examples are employers of the disabled workers, companions for the old and elderly, commissioned sales employees, deliverers of newspaper, fishermen, farm workers and few others.
The food service workers in some states who have additional earning from tips are also paid less than minimum wage. Thus, Federal Minimum Wage Law is a great boon for grass root workers of the country.
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