Fired After Complaining About a Minimum Wage Violation

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Washington

This is an update for my previous thread, "What is minimum wage for services performed in Seattle if your job is normally based elsewhere?"

Thanks to PayrolGuy for pointing me in the right direction to find information about my due compensation, I found out that I have been underpaid for the last three months. My employer just "didn't know" that she had to pay me the Seattle minimum wage, though she knew that my coworker (who met me in Seattle and lives there) was due the Seattle minimum wage, and was paying them $15 per hour, higher than the $13 per hour rate that is required for a Schedule 2 employer. The law regarding Seattle minimum wage can be found here: https://library.municode.com/WA/seat...MICORAEMPEWOSE

I originally alerted my boss to the fact that she has been underpaying me at the same time that I gave her my two weeks notice. I recognize now that my timing and my execution of these were rather poor. I likely should have just filed an official complaint up front, but I can't change what has happened so far. She said she would pay me the wages she owed me, but then I read up more on what kinds of fines and penalties my employer would be subject to if I were to file a complaint with the City of Seattle. I realized that I was legally entitled to not just the unpaid wages, but also liquidated damages worth up to twice the unpaid wages. I also realized my employer would be paying multiple fees to the tune of thousands of dollars.

I then decided that I wanted to pursue that due compensation instead of letting her get away with her violations scot-free. I also wanted to try to make this an easier process for all parties involved, and I proposed, in an email, that my employer pay me a sum of money that would fairly compensate me while saving her thousands of dollars in fines and civil penalties. I figured we could both walk away without a legal headache and that hopefully she would still learn a lesson to do her legal homework and not break the minimum wage laws. I said that if she didn't agree within 7 days, I would file an official complaint with the City, and they would take it from there.

After sending her this proposal and detailing for her the various parts of the law she has violated, she, unsurprisingly, sent me a text firing me. The text says "Hi, thanks for your thoughtful 2 week notice, but we got it covered from here. No need to come work anymore." The passive aggression should be criminal alone :p but here are my questions:

Is it too late to file a formal complaint? Did I forgo my right to a complaint by trying to negotiate the matter myself?

Will this termination be protected by subsection 14.19.055 - Retaliation prohibited? She mentioned in her text my "thoughtful 2 week notice", and to me this screams retaliation, she was pissed off that I was threatening legal action - as is my legal right - and mentions it in a roundabout way in her text. Would I only be covered by 14.19.055 if I had already filed a complaint at the time of retaliation?

Also, technically she has a few days left before 7 days are up. I took her text as a form of response to my email, should I just go ahead and file an official complaint sooner rather than later?

Thanks to everyone for your wealth of knowledge and willingness to help out a stranger!

You were not terminated. You turned in your 2 weeks notice and it was accepted immediately.

You can file with the City whenever you want and you will need it if you don't already have a job because you likely won't get unemployment because you quit.

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Quoting Leeku13

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I then decided that I wanted to pursue that due compensation instead of letting her get away with her violations scot-free. I also wanted to try to make this an easier process for all parties involved, and I proposed, in an email, that my employer pay me a sum of money that would fairly compensate me while saving her thousands of dollars in fines and civil penalties. I figured we could both walk away without a legal headache and that hopefully she would still learn a lesson to do her legal homework and not break the minimum wage laws. I said that if she didn't agree within 7 days, I would file an official complaint with the City, and they would take it from there.

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Not too bright.

You committed extortion under RCW 9A.56.100 through RCW 9A.56.140:

http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.56.110

http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.56.120

http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.56.130

Note the following:

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"it is a defense that the actor reasonably believed the threatened criminal charge to be true and that his or her sole purpose was to compel or induce the person threatened to take reasonable action to make good the wrong which was the subject of such threatened criminal charge."

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I hope you understand that you can still be arrested, charged and brought to trial where you would have to PROVE that defense.

Rather inconvenient and costly, I'd say.

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Quoting Rock Knocker

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Washington is very permissive in UI, so you are likely wrong

https://esd.wa.gov/unemployment/quit

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I don't see a mention of unemployment in the original post. I would hope that the OP has another job lined up.

If you give two weeks notice and are told not to come in for the two weeks, such that you are without pay, then you would be in a position to file for unemployment during that two week period. Beyond that, even with Washington's not-so-unusual list of reasons why you might qualify for unemployment after quitting, it's not a gimme.

Hmm, yeah, after I sent the email I had an immediate pang of uncertain regret that had to do with the fear that I may have committed some offense in the process of doing so. You have now confirmed that for me. I believe I could prove that defense if it came down to it, but I agree that that would be costly and inconvenient.

So that brings me to a previous question: is it too late to file a complaint? Or did I mess up my chance of that complaint going in my favor because I tried to negotiate favorable terms outside of the prescribed legal framework?

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Quoting adjusterjack

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You committed extortion under RCW 9A.56.100 through RCW 9A.56.140:

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While demanding money under threat of making a wage complaint is not a course of action I would have suggested, I think it's fair to say that the odds of a reasonable demand for unpaid wages conditioned on a threat of making a civil wage claim being treated as attempted extortion are small. But the calculus might shift if, say, the wages owed were $100 and the demand was for $10,000.

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Quoting Rock Knocker

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Washington is very permissive in UI

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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If you give two weeks notice and are told not to come in for the two weeks, such that you are without pay, then you would be in a position to file for unemployment during that two week period.

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WA's rule on quitting and it being accepted early is THREE weeks: accepted before three weeks, qualifying, and accepted less than three weeks, potentially disqualifying unless the underlying reason and circumstances are qualifying. In this case, the person can't complain about the pay shortage because he never gave the employer time to fix things.

While applying doesn't hurt, don't make any decisions about how to spend the money until you actually get it.

Thanks for the help everybody! I don't want to bother with getting unemployment, I already have a couple other side gigs going (that pay better) and am negotiating terms with some friends to get on full time with them.

I'm sending in my last time card today for the job I was just fired from, and will give my boss one last opportunity to respond to my proposal before I file a complaint, unless people think I should just go ahead and file that complaint now.

Thanks again for the helpful information, and I'm going to do better to not verge into the territory that could be misconstrued as extortion in the future.

You should just go ahead and file the complaint. If you don't, the company will likely keep doing it to other employees.