Your employer legally does have the ability to cut your pay, in many cases. It is true that workers are typically expecting to get raises over time, but pay reductions are sometimes unavoidable. They are not inherently illegal.
That being said, there may be issues with a pay cut that make it illegal or a violation of your rights as an employee. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Violating a contractual agreement
First and foremost, if you have an employment contract, your employer still has to abide by the terms that were agreed to. This is much different than being an at-will employee, where the terms of the employment relationship can change at any time.
Engaging in retaliation or discrimination
Next, the reason for the pay cut itself has to be legal. An employer cannot cut the pay of all employees in a certain protected class as a form of discrimination against them based on their race, religion or age, for example. Nor can your employer cut your pay in retaliation for a legal activity that you engaged in. Employees should not have to worry about their pay being cut if they report sexual harassment, for instance.
Reducing money that you already earned
Finally, even if your employer wants to cut your pay, they can only inform you about changes moving forward. If you are already owed money for hours that you have worked, they must pay you the previously agreed-upon hourly wage. They are only allowed to reduce that wage for any future hours.
Do you believe that your employer may have violated wage and hour laws with a recent pay cut? If so, take the time to carefully look into all of your legal options.
