Editor’s note: This is in response to the article “Protest over lack of wage increase,” published in Wednesday’s Daily Lobo. The article was about the approximately 75-person protest of the Route 66 Malt Shop. The protesters gathered because the owners are not paying their wait staff the new minimum wage. The wait staff had signed a contract agreeing to work for the old minimum wage to keep the restaurant from going bankrupt.
Editor,
It’s a good investment. The owner can’t legally not pay minimum wage. Employees can collect unpaid wages after they quit, plus twice that amount in penalties, plus interest, plus damages, plus attorney’s fees. One dollar per hour for 2,000 hours (an average work-year) is $2,000. Waiting until quitting turns that $2,000 into $6,000. The employer has no case; the contract the employees signed is invalid. Nothing will make the employer change his practice more readily than having to pay the cost of violating the law.
Thanks for your attention.
Russell Bell
Daily Lobo reader
