Who says wage and hour law is boring? Not us. We came across two wage and hour stories this year that are too awesome not to share.
As the New York Times reported back in January, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a retaliation lawsuit against the owner of a Peachtree City, Georgia auto-repair shop for dumping a mound of 91,500 “oil-soaked” pennies in a former employee’s driveway as payment of his final wages. The employee called the DOL after his resignation in January 2021 to complain that the shop had stiffed him on his final paycheck of $915. The shop owner initially told the agency he would not pay the wages, but hours later delivered the mountain of pennies (with a dry weight of approximately 572 lbs.) to the employee’s driveway, together with a copy of his final pay stub and a note featuring an expletive. The DOL’s lawsuit—filed in the Northern District of Georgia—also charged the shop owner with a host of other overtime and record keeping violations.
In fairness to the shop owner, the FLSA allows—and, indeed, requires—payment of wages “in cash or negotiable instrument payable at par,” an issue discussed in our recent blog on cryptocurrency in payroll. (Same with Georgia law, which allows payment in “lawful money of the United States.”) But the issue here is the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision, which makes it unlawful “to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any...
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