WOMEN FACING WAGE UNDERPAYMENTS

January 25, 2016

Christopher Anderson

We’ve noticed that lately we have been hearing from a significant number of women – especially in professional settings – with concerns about how they are being paid. It is shocking how many small businesses and startups in particular will ask people to work for them for weeks and months at a time sometimes with no pay at all, or sometimes with a fraction of what the law says they should pay.  

Illicit wage underpayments are not a “woman thing” – they definitely happen to all kinds of people of all walks of life – but we are really glad to see more and more women coming forward about their concerns. We do find that women in professional office settings in industries like media, technology, and marketing and in roles like project management, inside sales, and client relations are sometimes willing to stand up for themselves and come to seek our advice about what their options are. Great! Generally we see these types of women once the pay practices are truly egregious – not being paid for months at a time, for example. Once that happens, they are confident enough that what happened to them is truly wrong that they are willing to seek assistance with addressing it.

We would like to hear from even more women before it gets to that point. And, we want to hear from more women in jobs in which we know they are being underpaid but are not coming forward about it as much as their male counterparts – women in restaurant jobs, hotel jobs, medical jobs, office assistant jobs, etc.  

Even if you yourself are not being underpaid, what can you do to encourage someone to educate herself about what her rights are, and what her options might be if those rights are being violated?

In our experience, many of the wage underpayment practices that women are subjected to are the same as the kinds that men are, but there are others that seem like they are happening differently for men and women, for whatever reason. While it’s hard to believe that it still happens in this day and age, there are some employers that think they can get away with underpaying women because of their beliefs that women are less likely to do anything about it or fight for their rights. Let’s not let them get away with that!

We encourage people of all genders, ages, races, and circumstances to stand up and seek help when their employers are taking advantage of them – or even if they are just not sure about what their rights are or aren’t. We at AndersonDodson are ready and willing to provide legal guidance and counsel to those in need.

If you believe you’ve been victimized – woman or not – by illegal wage tactics, reach out to us today and let’s discuss your options.