Tell me if I am not alone as a slave to the state. Are there others?

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

Is it legal to keep a worker at work unpaid half the day to wait for business.

I have been working 40 hours and getting paid for half those hours at work for the better part of 15 years. I have contacted that state about it. They say it is a civil issue. When did it go into effect that workers have to hang around and wait for business typing and doing other tasks such as phone answering without pay.

I have been to the Idaho legislature and they nod their head and then ignore me - My company is almost completely funded by federal block grants.

Is anyone else getting the same raw deal?

[JDPriestly]

1. Ask an employment lawyer who practices in your state.

Call your bar association and ask for a referral to a lawyer. Google employment lawyer and then the name of your state. Read the codes and regulations on labor law in your state yourself.

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

4. I have contacted several lawyers and none will even call me back.

I have spoken to lawyers in several counties and states and they don't want the case.

[havocmom]

2. Salary, contract, commission, hourly wage? More info would be helpful

:shrug:

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

6. I am supposed to be on salery

They took my salary away and put me on billable hour without a contract. I am supposed to have a contract, and that still removes all my rights to fair labor and pay for work that is not billable. How can the State demand I only get paid for certain work? How do they get away with not paying me for legitimate work performed amounting to 20 hours a week unpaid?

[MercutioATC]

3. Employee or contractor?

(and I'm talking about the actual contractual designation)

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

7. I have no contract

I didn't sign one. I'm still working.

[sui generis]

5. does your check stub say 40 hours or 20 hours?

Are you salary or part time?

Do you fill out a timesheet?

How do you account for different use of your forty hours? You need to have a real case for your state dept of labor to investigate.

Things like, for part-time non-salary requiring you to be present at work without pay for more than customer early-arrival and post work wrap-up, if documented, is illegal. Policy, memos, emails, voice mails, all of those things are required. HOWEVER, if your employer gives you "base pay" for all hours present and then commission pay or some such for actual billable work, you don't have a case.

You need to take it up with a counselor at your state department of labor. They can tell you for sure if the law is being broken in your particular case. Your employer may just come back and say "they're not REQUIRED to be here - they've always just voluntarily done it" if you don't have hard evidence that they're demanding your time without compensating you for it.

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

8. I am billable hour, no contract, no timesheet, no base pay

If I ask for pay for my alternate work too often I get fired or laid off

[sui generis]

11. just to be clear - even as supplemental labor

you are generally paid for being "present". If the employer is paying your W-2 and requires you to be present forty hours for twenty hours of pay, you have a case. If the employer requires you to be present for forty hours in order to get paid for twenty, he's breaking labor law in all fifty states.

Can you imagine asking an electrician or a plumber to be at your house for 40 hours and then try to only pay them for twenty? Go visit the labor board and ask what your options are - good luck!

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

12. Thank you but the labor board in Idaho...

Is in collusion with local businesses and will tell you to take a hike - been there several times in different counties.

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

9. No Salary, no time sheet, no account of hours other than billing sheet n/t

[Help_I_Live_In_Idaho]

10. It says 20 hours n/t