New Law Will Require Employers Give Wage Notices To Maryland Employees Every Pay Period

 The Maryland General Assembly passed a new law that requires employers give notice to employees every pay period.  This information provides minimum standards for the information normally placed on a physical or electronic pay stub.  The stub/notice must include the following information:

➤ The employer’s name registered with the State, address, and telephone number; 

➤ The date of payment and the beginning and ending dates of the pay period; 

➤ The number of hours worked during the pay period, unless the employee is exempt; 

➤ The rates of pay

➤ The gross and net pay earned during the pay period

➤ The amount and name of all deductions; 

➤ A list of additional pay, including bonuses, commissions on sales, or other bases; 

➤ The applicable piece rates of pay and the number of pieces completed at each piece rate for each employee paid at a piece rate. 

If signed by the Governor, the Law will go into effect on October 1, 2024.

 

Minimum Wage Increases in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties effective October 1, 2015.

Effective October 1, 2015, the minimum wage in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties went up to $9.55 per hour. For the other counties in Maryland, the minimum wage is $8.25. Here is the Maryland Department of Labor's minimum wage site. Here is the Maryland Department of Labor's minimum wage site.

Maryland Law Increasing Minimum Wage Also Provides for Liquidated (or Double) Damages

    The Federal law governing the minimum wage and overtime is the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").  Maryland has its own minimum wage and overtime law, called the Maryland Wage and Hour Law ("MWHL").  Under the FLSA, a plaintiff claiming unpaid wages can collect the amount owed plus an equivalent amount as liquidated damages.  The plaintiff thus can collect double damages.  Under the MWHL, a plaintiff could only collect the wages owed (single damages).  As a result, most plaintiffs have historically brought their claims under the FLSA. Most FLSA claims end up in Federal Court.

   That is likely to change.  The law eventually raising Maryland's minimum wage to $10.10 also states that Court can shall award liquidated damages for a violation of the MWHL.  An employer can avoid liquidated damages if it can show it acted in good faith and reasonably believed that the wages paid to the employee were not less than the MWHL requires.  The law takes effect July 1, 2014.  As a result, more overtime and minimum wage cases will end up in Maryland State Courts.

Department of Labor Issues A New App to Track Overtime

Q:  What are the three most important rules in employment law?
A:   Document, Document, Document.

The Department of Labor issued an app to document overtime.  The app acts as a time clock. You press a button when you start working, then you press a button when you stop working.  You enter your hourly rate.  The app then calculates your wages and overtime.  You can email a report of your time to help you follow the three most important rules of employment law:  document, document, document. 

Bill to raise Maryland’s minimum wage faces opposition

A bill pending in the General Assembly proposes to gradually move the Maryland minimum wage to $10 per hour.  This article from the Daily Record notes the substantial opposition to the bill, including from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.   Given the economic climate, I believe the odds of the bill passing are slim.

Dirty Labor Laundry On-Line

Want to know if your employer is a serial labor law violator? Check The U.S. Department of Labor - Enforcement Data . There, you can search by to see if your employer has previously violated USDOL-enforced labor laws (like the Family and Medical Leave Act and the federal minimum wage and overtime law).

Sadly, Not Much To Contest About an Across-The-Board Pay Cut.

A reader recently asked:

I've read over your blog and must thank you for posting all of the information. Your blog is very helpful. I have a question that I would like to ask you that I am having trouble finding an answer to. All salary and hourly employees at the company I work for have been told that a mandatory pay cut would be put into effect on our next pay cycle. What laws exist in the state of Maryland in regards to this?

I wrote back:

Not much. Employers cannot take back money that already been earned (i.e., commissions and bonuses), and must give one paycheck notice of a pay cut.

I add: of course the decision to make the cut must be non-discriminatory and cannot reduce an employee's wages below the minimum wage.

Top Five Ways Restaurants Violate Wage Laws

Over at wagecollection.com, I noted the top 5 ways restaurants violate wage laws.

Maryland Department of Labor to add Wage investigators

An employee who is owed wages from his or her employer can pursue an action to collect those wages under the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law. The employee has two options: (1) hire a private attorney to sue his or her former employer; (2) report the employer to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation ("DLLR"), Employment Standards Division.

Under Governor Ehrlich, by 2006, the Employment Standards Division had zero investigators devoted to wage payment claims. (For this reason I was reluctant to send employees to the DLLR).

According to the new DLLR Secretary, Thomas Perez, the O'Malley administration added budget money to hire six investigators. As of the ariting of the article cited here, the Department had filled three positions.

Of note:

1. The investigators' starting salary is $24,000 per year.
2. O'Malley's transition teams suggested that Maryland hire 11 investigators.

Restaurant Workers Among the Most Abused.

In fiscal year 2006, the Department of Labor collected nearly $50.6 million in back wages for approximately 86,700 workers in "low-wage industries." What industry made up the bulk of the violations? The restaurant industry.

Although the statistics are drawn from the entire nation, I know it is no different in Maryland since this firm (and several of my colleagues) have pursued claims on behalf of servers, kitchen workers, and custodial employees.

Are You Really an Independent Contractor?

Monday is tax day. Is the individual responsible for payroll taxes or is the employer? Is the individual entitled to overtime for working more than 40 hours in a week. It may depend on whether the individual is an independent contractor or an employee. How can you tell?

One place to start is Maryland's unemployment law. That law provides a narrow (perhaps the narrowest) definition of an independent contractor. The law states an individual is an independent contractor if:

(1) the individual who performs the work is free from control and direction over
its performance both in fact and under the contract;

(2) the individual customarily is engaged in an independent business or occupation of the same nature as that involved in the work; and

(3) the work is: (i) outside of the usual course of business of the person for whom the work is performed; or (ii) performed outside of any place of business of the person for whom the work is performed. (emphasis added)

The Court of Appeals interpreted the statute in DLLR v. Fox. There the Court held that hygienists (and other professionals) were employed by the agency that placed them in temporary positions in the Baltimore area. Why? The hygienists were not "free from control" by the agency. The agency "controlled" the hygienists' placement and pay rate. (As a result the agency had to pay back unemployment tax premiums for hygienists).

Again, the Maryland unemployment law independent contractor test is one of the most restrictive. The IRS and common law tests are slightly different. But, if your employer controls your work and sets your pay you may well be an employee entitled to unemployment benefits.

Do you believe you have been misclassified as an independent contractor? Contact me.

True or False: Maryland Law Does Not Require Employers to Give Breaks to their Adult Employees.

[UPDATE: Starting March 1, 2011, certain retail employee will be entitled to breaks.]

True. According to the Maryland Department of Labor: "There is no law requiring an employer to provide breaks, including lunch breaks, unless the employee is under the age of 18."

But if an employer gives you a "break" you must be completely relieved of your duties for at least twenty minutes. Otherwise you are working and should be compensated for this "break" time. See this post.

A Tail of Two Wage Bills.

Legislators introduced two interesting wage bills in this General Assembly session. One "living wage bill" raises the minimum wages for employees working for state-government contractors. The other bill seeks to limit executive compensation to a maximum of thirty times a company's lowest paid worker. (Thanks to Trevor Rosen at the Maryland Law Blog for pointing me to the executive compensation bill)


A vote on a living wage bill is expected today. According to the Daily Record:

The House of Delegates is expected to vote Friday on House Bill 430, which would make Maryland the first state to require companies with state contracts to pay the living wage. The wage would apply to workers on contracts worth $100,000 or more and would be set at $11.30 an hour for contracts performed in Baltimore City and Montgomery, Prince George’s, Howard, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties. State contracts in the remaining counties would require workers to be paid $8.50 an hour.

The executive compensation bill appears unlikely to make it out of Committee.

Employers May Not Have their Hand in Restaurant Workers' Tip Pool

Employers can pay restaurant workers the "sub minimum wage" ($3.08 per hour in Maryland) because servers and waiters can make up the difference earning tips. Employers call this the "tip credit" against the minimum wage.

Employers may pool all tips and distribute them equitably to those employees who are in the business of providing service to the customers. This is called a tip pool.

But can the House keep any tips? Absolutely not. If the employer keeps the tips then it is not entitled to the tip credit. In such case the serves would have valid claims for the full minimum wage.

Restauruant workers who work overtime: are you entitled to 1.5 x $3.08 per overtime hour or 1.5 x the minumum wage?

Which is it? Hint: Restaurants frequently get the answer wrong. Here is the answer from the United States Department of Labor website:

Overtime: Overtime must be paid at a rate of at least one and one-half times the employee's regular rate of pay for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours per week. Tipped employees who receive $2.13 per hour in direct wages are also subject to overtime at one and one-half times the applicable minimum wage, not one and one-half times $2.13.

Note: Maryland's minimum wage for tipped employees is $3.08.