Unsure about Salary Law, Boss witholding money

[Mikenno]

I currently work for a pet care service where each visit pays $7.25 and I'm (supposed to be) compensated for mileage.

I had gotten fired from a previous job, so to assist me, my manager at my part-time job hired me full time and decided to put me on a salary worth 110 visits.

We didn't resign any contracts on the matter.

So she paid me for a few couple of months on this salary (biweekly paychecks), and only when she said she couldn't afford to pay me mileage right away did I notice that it was missing from my paychecks. I told her that was okay, and that she could cut me a check for it another time.

As time progressed, I was constantly being told that I was going to "owe her money" because I wasn't meeting enough visits (I was landing 70-80 visits at most). I was unaware of this being a problem. I didn't realize that a salary would mean I could potentially owe her money if the work wasn't there.

I asked later to be removed from salary and put back on a per-visit pay rate, plus mileage. My boss told me that I owed her $600-something odd dollars (possibly more) from the salary, and without knowing anything better about the subject, we figured out that she'd stop paying me mileage (and take what she owed me from previous unpaid mileage) and deduct it all from what I owe her.

Earlier this evening, my father, a business owner, told me that what she is doing to me is illegal. It's been a few paychecks of not getting paid mileage and I'm at a horrible breaking point.

Is what she did really illegal, especially since we didn't sign any new contracts? She told me aside from her assistant manager, she had never done a salary before. When the other girl quit, she said the salary was the worst idea ever and she had been getting screwed, but gave me no details.

 

[Patricia_Young]

Without a valid contract or agreement requiring mileage reimbursement, you're probably SOL. Your state is not one of the two states that requires such reimbursement under wage and hour law.

"Salary" is merely a pay method. Take your weekly salary and divide it by the number of hours worked in the workweek. This includes "sitting" time and driving number between clients. If that result is less than minimum wage, then file a wage claim for minimum wage violation.

You must be paid for all time worked, and overtime pay if you work over 40 hours in a workweek, since you are a nonexempt employee. However, as a nonexempt salaried employee, you need to be paid ONLY for what you worked. She would have a hard time justifying a claim that she has overpaid your salary because you she didn't provide you with enough hours or visits. How many hours per week is your salary intended to cover? This is an important question.

Obviously, she has not paid nonexempt employees a salary before, because she has no clue on how to do it.