Recently, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Lopez v. Marmic LLC, holding that undocumented workers are entitled to recover for underpayment under New Jersey’s wage and hour laws. The decision provides important guidance on the intersection of federal immigration law and New Jersey wage and hour protections, the legal status of barter arrangements, and employers’ record-keeping obligations.
Defendants Marmic LLC, a realty management company, and Mike Ruane, its principal, hired Plaintiff Sergio Lopez as a building superintendent. Initially, Defendants paid Plaintiff a weekly salary, but after discovering that Plaintiff was an undocumented immigrant, they ceased paying him wages and instead compensated him solely by providing him a rent-free apartment. Defendants terminated Plaintiff after he had worked under this arrangement for multiple years.
Plaintiff then sued Defendants under New Jersey’s Wage and Hour Law, N.J.S.A. 34:11-56a et seq., and Wage Payment Law, N.J.S.A. 34:11-4.1 et seq., claiming that Defendants failed to pay him minimum wages and overtime. The case proceeded to a bench trial, where Plaintiff testified that he worked between thirty-seven and sixty hours per week, performing various tasks. Defendants agreed that Plaintiff performed the tasks described. Neither Plaintiff nor Defendants, however, maintained records of the hours Plaintiff worked.
The trial court found in Defendants’ favor. In part, the court reasoned that...
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