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  1. #1
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    Apr 2017
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    Greenville, SC
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    Default Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notice to Employees

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: South Carolina.

    My district manager was running our store for the last week while our General Manager has been on Vacation. In her time with us she has done many things which I had always assumed to be illegal. One of those things is that she went through our payroll and changed the wages of many of our employees. Including mine.

    Bartenders have always made $3.13 per hour. She changed it to $2.13. One of our cooks has been making $14 per hour. She changed it to $12.50. Etc..

    This was done without any paper trail and absolutely zero notice to any of us (I assume we were supposed to find out when paychecks came around). My General Manager is back from her vacation and wasn't even informed about this. She is worried that the District Manager is going to try to place the blame on her. Even though there are cameras in the office to protect her from that.

    Is this legal? Could we start a class action of some kind if they don't fix our wages?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    8,238

    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    An employer may not change the wages AFTER the work has been done. The employer must notify the employees of the new wage before they do any work at that wage. Under South Carolina state law, if the employer has more than 5 employees, the employer must notify employees of wage changes in writing at least one week prior to the wage change taking effect. If the company changed the wages after the work was done and refuses to correct that, the first step for the employees should be filing complaints with the federal Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division and the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    While I agree that this is illegal under SC law, where is it illegal under Federal?

  4. #4
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    Apr 2017
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    Greenville, SC
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    Quote Quoting Taxing Matters
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    An employer may not change the wages AFTER the work has been done. The employer must notify the employees of the new wage before they do any work at that wage. Under South Carolina state law, if the employer has more than 5 employees, the employer must notify employees of wage changes in writing at least one week prior to the wage change taking effect. If the company changed the wages after the work was done and refuses to correct that, the first step for the employees should be filing complaints with the federal Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division and the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.
    How much time will be allotted for them to fix our wages if they say they will?

    Also, my General Manager was recently promoted to General Manager from Assistant. They verbally promised her an agreed upon wage for her to take the position and she doesn't feel like they are paying her the agreed upon wage (She doesn't know for sure because the website is down that holds our paystub information). Will a verbally discussed wage hold up in court if they decide not to pay her the full amount?

  5. #5
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    Apr 2017
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    Greenville, SC
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    I'm still awaiting a response on this as my first paycheck with this new wage should be arriving in a couple of days (still no official statement or notice of a wage change from my superiors)..

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    Quote Quoting cbg
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    While I agree that this is illegal under SC law, where is it illegal under Federal?

    I did not state that it was illegal under federal law; there wasn’t enough information in the post to determine that. I did, however, suggest filing a complaint with the federal DOL Wage and Hour Division. The reason for this is that what the employer did might be violation of federal law regarding overtime pay.

    The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), as amended, requires provides two key protections for non-exempt employees: (1) that the employee must be paid at least minimum wage as set out in the Act and (2) that the employee must be paid one-half times the employee’s “regular rate” of pay for every hour over 40 hours worked in the work week. The Supreme Court stated: “The regular rate, by its very nature, must reflect all payments which the parties have agreed shall be received regularly during the workweek, exclusive of overtime payments.” Walling v. Youngerman-Reynolds Hardwood Co., Inc.,325 U.S. 419 (1945). Thus, the regular rate has to be one that the parties have agreed to. The employer unilaterally changing the rate after the work has been done is not a rate to which the parties have agreed. The employee may not agree with that change at all, and by making it after the work has been done the employer denies the employee the opportunity to disagree and refuse to work at that rate. The employer cannot avoid paying the overtime owed at the regular rate that the parties had agreed to and which was in effect at the time the work was done by changing it after the fact.

    If the law allowed that, an employer could easily circumvent paying overtime simply by adjusting the rate of pay afterwards to wipe out the overtime pay. The Supreme Court has said that wage schemes meant to defeat the purpose of the overtime pay requirements are not permitted. “But this freedom of contract does not include the right to compute the regular rate in a wholly unrealistic and artificial manner so as to negate the statutory purposes.” Id, citing Walling v. Helmerich & Payne, Inc., 323 U. S. 37.

    In reducing the pay after the fact, there is thus a risk that the employer has violated the FSLA by paying less for overtime than the law mandates. Of course, I don’t know if any employees worked more than 40 hours during the week that is involved here. But since there may have been one or more employees who were not paid proper overtime I suggested they report it to the federal DOL so that if there was such a violation the DOL could act on the complaints and force the employer to pay the overtime that was owed.

  7. #7
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    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying, Tax.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
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    Greenville, SC
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    And does the fact that I went into the wages and figured out what they were doing before they said anything count as notification? The District Manager who changed the wages has no idea that I know what she has done.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    Quote Quoting J_Nic
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    And does the fact that I went into the wages and figured out what they were doing before they said anything count as notification? The District Manager who changed the wages has no idea that I know what she has done.
    No. Under South Carolina law the employer must notify the employee in writing of the change in pay at least a week before the change takes effect. You weren't notified in writing at all and you found out about it after the pay change. The employer thus has not met the requirement of SC to provide you the advance notice. I’m going to bet that a lot of SC smaller and mid-size employers have no clue this requirement even exists.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Greenville, SC
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    13

    Default Re: Can a Manager Change the Wages of the Staff Without Notification to Anyone

    So my complaint was finally answered by my District Manager and she claims that our old General Manager was supposed to inform us of the wage change. Our old GM was recently fired and when I asked him about it he says that she is full of shit and that he hadn't heard anything about this. I have no reason to believe that he would be lying and every reason to believe that she is using his situation to her advantage.

    I informed her that we have had no notification of this wage change and I asked her if we would be reimbursed for the hours that we have already worked. She said no. I still have had no written notification on this issue. Should I go ahead and file a complaint with the SC Department of Labor? I'm willing to bet there are dozens of other employees from other stores who were also given no notification of this.. Are we eligible for a large payout of some kind due to illegal activity? Or nothing more than a reimbursement?

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