Cheating Workers Out of Wages
“‘Wage theft’ ... refers to situations in which someone isn’t paid for [their] work. In its simplest form, it might consist of a manager instructing employees to work off the clock. Or a company refusing to pay for overtime hours. ... When an employee clocks in for the day – using a computer login, ID badge or phone – that employee’s time log becomes a form of data.”
“Rounding – the functionality used to nickel and dime workers ... – is a convenient way for companies to consistently reclaim employee hours. Even though the software can precisely record the time an employee clocks in and out, the ‘rounding’ functionality changes that time according to a preset increment. ... The preferred rounding increment ... appeared to be to the quarter hour. So arriving to work at 8:53 a.m. would be rounded to 9, while 8:52 would become 8:45. ... But companies have two extra weapons to corral employee punches to work in their favor: policies and discipline. Yes, you could show up late or leave early, but then you’d be flagged for discipline under the attendance policy. Employers also reclaim time through what is known as ‘automatic break deductions.’ ... The software assumes that you took your full meal break, even if you didn’t.”
“So how did this problem come about in the first place? These types of employer abuses are made possible by half-century-old rules that permitted rounding because at the time companies had to calculate hours by hand. The outdated regulations assume that rounding will ‘average out’ in the long term, essentially forcing workers to prove that they don’t. ... What’s more, the outdated regulations don’t even mention automatic break deductions. This problem is not going away. As long as these regulatory loopholes exist, employers and software makers will find ways to exploit them. That means if you’re paid an hourly wage, you may very well be losing out.”
The Conversation, May 22, 2018: “Cheating workers out of wages is easier than ever,” by Elizabeth C. Tippett
Yale Journal of Law & Technology, 2017: “When Timekeeping Software Undermines Compliance,” by Elizabeth Tippett, Charlotte S. Alexander, & Zev J. Eigen (76 pages, PDF)
The Guardian, May 19, 2018: “'There's no excuse for wage theft': on the frontline of worker exploitation,” by Melissa Davey
