What you Need to Know About Wage Theft & Notifications
What are Wage Theft Prevention Notifications?
Wage theft occurs when an employer does not pay an employee for work the employee has performed, depriving the worker of wages and earnings to which the worker is legally entitled. This may include but is not limited to the following;
violating minimum wage requirements
failing to pay overtime
failing to provide final payments upon termination
misclassifying employees as being exempt from overtime compensation or as independent contractors rather than as employees
improperly withholding tips
not allowing for or paying for earned time off
improper deductions
not providing required benefits
A number of states (and some cities) have adopted legislation requiring employers to provide their employees with Wage Theft Prevention Notifications so that the employees know exactly what compensation they are entitled to. Your state’s Department of Labor is a great place to start when trying to understand your obligations.
Being a state requirement, Wage Theft Prevention Notification has ambiguities when it comes to what notifications you are obligated to provide to your employees. For example, some states require that a notification be sent whenever any element of an employee’s compensation changes while others require notification annually. Additionally, some states only require notifications be sent to non-exempt employees while others may require notifications be sent to all employees.
Notification content requirements vary by jurisdiction and may include, but are not limited to, the following:
employee’s rate or rates of pay
overtime rate of pay, if the employee is subject to overtime regulations
basis of wage payment (i.e. per hour, per shift, per week, commission)
any allowances the employer intends to claim as part of the minimum wage including tip, meal and lodging allowances
regular pay day
next pay date
years of service
employer’s name and any names under which the employer does business
physical address of the employer’s main office, and if different, the employer’s mailing address
employer’s telephone number
leave benefits and how they are accrued
Employers can provide the notice electronically, provided the employee can acknowledge receipt and print a copy.
Is there a Workday® Business Process for this?
Now, let’s discuss how Workday can help you comply with state laws and provide the required notifications to your employees. Workday provides a business process, Wage Theft Prevention Notice specifically for generating Wage Theft notifications.
The business process can be called in the following ways:
A stand-alone process – Generate Wage Theft Prevention Notice
Wage Theft Notification Business Process
Sub-process called by Hire
Sub-process called by Request Compensation Change
Sub-process called by Change Job
Features of the Business Process
Workday Standard Generate Document Functionality
Create different text blocks for each section of the document
Include references to calculated fields
Include links to webpages
Use conditional rules to call text blocks based on data elements such as:
Full time or Part time
Salary or Hourly
Exempt or Non-exempt
Generate Document can be an included step allowing you to edit the document before it goes to the employee
Review Documents is a required step which enables the employee to acknowledge receipt of the document as well as download and / or print a copy
There are some complexities with setting up the text blocks when trying to calculate various fields such as next pay date and years of service because the business process calling the Wage Theft sub-process may be using an effective date in the past, present or future.
In Summary
Requirements for Wage Theft Notification are becoming increasingly prevalent as authorities try to ensure that employees receive all of the compensation to which they are entitled.
Workday provides the necessary capabilities so that you can provide timely delivery of Wage Theft notifications to your employees enabling you to stay in compliance with jurisdictional requirements and avoid penalties for non-compliance.
Our experts at Makse Group can walk you through these complexities and assist you with configuring Wage Theft notifications for your employees.
