What is comparable pay?

Company won't pay me.What else should I do?

• On January 1,2012 I was laid off and I did not come back to work until March 15. I ended up quitting my job and having my last day April 9. I have not seen the money for the hours I worked between March 15 and april 9. On April 25 I called the companies payroll department to see what was going on. I called them on 3 separate occasions atleast 2 or 3 hours apart and left messages on each occasion but recieved no call back.I then called again on April 26 and the same story occured again. I called 3 or 4 times and left messages again and recieved no call back. I would have called earlier to find out what was going on but when I was hired back in April 2011 I was told it takes a few weeks for payroll to catch up and I was told by another employee that it would probably be a few weeks before I would get paid due to the time it takes to get in, or in my case back in, to the system. After the second time calling payroll I then called the district manager of the store I was in. I did not get an answer from him but left a message. .About a day later I recieved a call back from the district manager( it was now april 27)and he said he would look into what was going on. He called me back and said that they would sending out a check to me, I just needed to call a woman in payroll to confirm my address. I then attempted to call the woman on three separate occasions and recieved no answer. By this point I was tired of calling and begging for my money that was owed to me so I then decided it was time to report what was happening to the US Department of Labor because at this point I was owed over 700$. The next monday I received a check in the mail for the money I owed but they did not pay me at the correct pay rate. I was supposed to be paid at 8.50 but was only paid at $8/hr. I immediately called the district manager and told him and he stated he would call me back.This was on April 30. On May 1 I was told that an email was sent to him from the manager of the store I worked at stating my pay rate changed when I came back to work. I was told this was because before I was laid off I was a key holder and when I came back I was not. I told him that I was never notified about this change in pay and my original pay rate was agreed upon my hire( about 6 months before I became a key holder). The district manager said he would look into it and let me know later that day. He was still trying to get ahold of the store manager who sent the email. I have not heard from him since. I was hoping someone could give me some advice as to what else I can do. I have a feeling the manager will stick with the pay rate lowing aspect. If this were to happen I would ask why I was not given a key back when I came back and I would probably be told because of theft. Before I left we had been having issues with theft in the store and the manager accused myself and another employee without any proof and proceeded to tell other employees in the work place. I am wondering what I should do. Is this something I should get a lawyer for to get my money owed to me? Should I get one in the instance that she uses the theft issue and I have to sue the manager for defamation of character? This is getting VERY frusterating and I do not know what else to do. PLEASE HELP!

• Answer:

  In the future, DO NOT file wage claims with the Dept of Labor because you were not getting a call back quick enough. Do EVERYTHING you can do before filing the wage claim. This means SENDING A CERTIFIED LETTER requesting to be paid by a specific day. Make sure the date is enough time for them to actually get you a check. - now you have government workers running around doing useless work. I do not know why you were brought back if you had been accussed of theft in the past. Do you work for a union organization and they had to bring you back based on seniority? You do not have a claim for the missing 50-cents. Prove to me that they didn't tell you before starting work? You can't and their paperwork will back up that YOU were told. - next time get paperwork to show your rate and you won't have this problem.