A Brief Introduction to Wage Theft

A Texas-based attorney with 13 years of experience, Anastacio Trae Mindiola has managed operations at his Houston law firm since 2011. In this position Anastacio Mindiola practices in a variety of areas, including wage theft.

Wage theft is a term used to describe situations in which employees receive lower pay than the law requires or that has been contractually agreed upon. One of the most common forms of wage theft in the states of Texas, New York, California, and Pennsylvania in particular involves employers neglecting to pay time-and-a-half wages to employees who have worked more than 40 hours per week. In these states, attorneys may be able to reclaim lost wages extending as far back as six years. Furthermore, employees may be legally entitled to up to double their lost wages.

Other forms of wage theft include failure to issue a final paycheck after an employee is let go or leaves the job, and not paying an employee for the total amount of time worked. Employers paying less than minimum wage can also be charged with wage theft. Failure to pay for services rendered is, of course, the most extreme wage-theft scenario.