labor lawAdivision of labor law center

On January 1, 2009 the Colorado minimum wage increased to $7.28 per hour. The hike from $7.02 hourly represents a 26 cents per hour increase.  The new minimum wage tracks the region’s inflation rate.

According to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment , the minimum wage must be annually adjusted for inflation. In the Denver-Boulder-Greeley area of Colorado, the Consumer Price Index (or CPI) showed an increase of 3.7%. As a result, the minimum wage showed a corresponding increase.

Tracking the inflation rate is part of Colorado law. Under Article XVIII, Section 15 of the Colorado Constitution, employers are required to adjust the pay of their minimum-wage employees every year to match the inflation rate. The law was last amended in 2006.

Donald J. Mares, Colorado’s Executive Director of Labor as well as the top officer of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, published the new minimum wage figures recently.

Because the prices of food and other commodities have risen dramatically, (more…)

The Colorado minimum wage will increase by 26 cents, from $7.02 to $7.28 per hour, effective January 1, 2009. The minimum wage for tipped employees in the state will also increase by 26 cents, from $4.00 to $4.26 per hour.

Under Article XVIII, Section 15 of the Colorado Constitution, as amended in 2006, the Colorado minimum wage is adjusted annual for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Colorado. That law also increased the Colorado minimum wage to $6.85 per hour in 2007, and capped the tax credit employers can take for tipped workers at $3.02 per hour.

The Colorado minimum wage is adjusted for inflation each year (more…)

Colorado’s minimum wage increased to $7.02 on January 1, 2008, as a result of the Colorado Minimum Wage Order 24. The new minimum wage replaces the previous minimum of $6.85, which went into effect on January 1, 2007.

This new Colorado minimum wage doesn’t apply to all workers. Unlike other states with similar laws, Colorado’s minimum wage law applies only to retail and service industries, such as commercial support, health and medical industries and food and beverage industries.

Federal law requires an employee be paid overtime at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate for any time worked over 40 hours in a week. Most of the country is covered by this “overtime”. In Colorado, workers eligible under the minimum wage law are eligible for overtime after 40 hours a week, or for more than 12 hours in one day. Several states, like Colorado have state laws regarding overtime, but many do not. In those states, an employee is either covered by federal overtime law or isn’t covered at all.

Colorado has made several recent changes in its employment laws.

Colorado Statute 8-2-122 became law on January 1, 2007, and requires every employer to copy and maintain those copies of the worker’s identification documents for the federal I-9 form. Additionally, the employer must file a state affirmation within 20 days of hiring a new worker. In this affirmation the employer declares that he or she examined the worker’s identification documents and didn’t alter them in any way. It also states that the employer didn’t knowingly hire an illegal alien.

Colorado isn’t the only state enacting tough new immigration laws. Arizona, too, has established legislation regarding undocumented employees.

As of January 1, 2008, any Arizona employer who knowingly or willingly hires illegal aliens will face tougher sanctions. Rather than being fined, an employer can actually be shut down. The first violation of this law garners the business a 10 day suspension of its license. A second violation results in the employer permanently losing its business license.

Vermont, Missouri and New Mexico are among the fourteen states to raise their state minimum wages as of January 1, 2008. The increases in these fourteen states, however, are just the beginning of a year full of changes.

On the 1st of July, 2008, West Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky and Pennsylvania will enact raises to their state minimum wages, too. Michigan and Illinois will each up its minimum by 25 cents per hour. Illinois’s rate will go from $7.50 to $7.75 and Michigan’s new rate will be $7.40 per hour.

Workers in Kentucky will receive a raise in minimum wage of $6.55 per hour, a bump of 70 cents from $5.85. A 70 cent raise will also be given to minimum wage employees in West Virginia resulting in a new rate of $7.25 per hour. Pennsylvania workers, however, will enjoy the biggest wage bump. On July 1, 2008, Pennsylvania’s minimum will jump a whopping 90 cents from $6.25 to $7.15 per hour.

Many states have their own minimum wage laws, and several tie the increases to their minimum rates to the increase in the federal minimum wage. On July 24, 2008, therefore, North Carolina, North Dakota and Indiana, among others will enact a rise in their minimum wage rates, too.

Minimum wage in the District of Columbia is also tied to the federal minimum wage. The D.C. law, however, requires its minimum to be at least $1.00 more than the federal rate. On July 24, 2008, therefore, D.C.’s minimum wage rate will become $7.55 per hour, exactly $1.00 greater

An aerospace defense contractor based in Broomfield, Colorado was ordered to pay almost $1 million in back wages to 904 employees in four states plus the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Department of Labor charges that Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Inc. failed to pay $976,327 in overtime to employees in Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Georgia and Washington D.C.

According to sources, an investigation showed that once senior technicians reached the maximum hourly rate, they were arbitrarily and unlawfully changed to salaried-exempt status. The change in pay rate did not include a significant increase in responsibilities. Under federal law, in order to be exempt from overtime pay, employees must have decision-making powers, significant administrative duties or they must supervise three or more people. None of those conditions were met for the 111 technicians in question, so they are due $383, 235 in unpaid overtime.

In addition, all employees were routinely required to work through their lunch periods without any pay. Even if they were not able to take a lunch break, an hour was deducted from their time cards every work day. This violation resulted in payments of $593,092 to 793 employees.

Ball agreed to keep more accurate payroll records in the future, in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA, and to pay all required wages to employees in the future.

In late July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced Desert Plastering, Inc., a Las Vegas Nevada firm, to pay nearly $1.2 million in back pay to 1060 employees. The feds found that Desert Plastering had not paid required overtime to lathers, finishers, plasterers and estimators who worked up to 58 hours per week.

In early July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced 107 subcontractors of KBR, Inc. of Virginia to pay some $1.5 million in back wages and benefits for up to 2,600 workers who participated in the Hurricane Katrina recovery project. The construction workers were involved in repairs to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport Mississippi or the Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. The U.S. Department of Labor is still searching for some of the workers involved in that case. Anyone who believes that they are owed back wages for these projects can contact the nearest U.S. Department of Labor office. The average payment per worker in that case was $616.

Earlier this year, under a voluntary agreement to prevent a federal suit, Wal-Mart, Inc. agreed to pay $33 million in unpaid overtime wages to 86,680 employees throughout the nation. An internal audit revealed that the company had incorrectly classified some employees as “salary-exempt” when in fact they were entitled to overtime pay. In other cases, the company admitted that it had based overtime pay on the employee’s base hourly rate, not including incentives and bonuses in the employee’s average rate as required by law.

The Fair Labor Standard Act requires that most U.S. employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, which is currently $5.85 per hour. The FLSA also mandates that employees must be paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate for each hour over 40 in a single work week.

Many employers mistakenly believe that any worker paid by salary is exempt from overtime. The FLSA does provide a number of exemptions to the overtime law for bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales jobs. In general, employees must meet job duty and salary tests, to be exempt from overtime.

The U. S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division collected more than $171 in back wages for some 246,000 employees in 2006. Thos wages were a result of 31,987 “compliance actions” in 2006.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is one of the latest large companies to fall afoul of the federal and Colorado overtime laws.

The US Dept of Labor has recently announced that the store has agreed to pay more than $33 million in back wages. Under the terms of the judgment, Wal-Mart not only has to pay the back wages owed to employees, but also interest on those wages. This was thought to provide a deterrent against similar laws being violated in the future.

“This settlement provides $33 million in back wages, plus interest, to Wal-Mart workers, and the company has taken corrective action to prevent this from happening again.” This is what Victoria A. Lipnic, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards had to say on the matter.

It was found that Wal-Mart was guilty of wrongfully calculating the amount of overtime pay for workers in Colorado, as well as throughout the United States. The US Dept of Labor found that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.

They did this by not paying the right amount of overtime to workers who worked for more than 40 hours a week.  According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers are entitled to overtime at a rate of 1.5 times their usual hourly rate for each hour they work over 40 hours per week.

Wal-Mart were found guilty of violating Colorado overtime laws because they did not take into account incentives and premiums paid to the workers, and  paid employees overtime of 1.5 of the base rate only.  For example, if an employee earns $6.00 per hour, but with incentives usually earns $7.00 per hour, then their over time rate should be 1.5 times their usual hourly rate (including incentives), not their basic hourly rate.

The amount that Wal-Mart have agreed to pay back to their employees covers back wages for workers numbering 86,680 for the period between February 1, 2002 and January 19, 2007.