Chicago Employment Lawyers 

When your job steals your wages, you need someone who understands employment law and has experience advocating for employees’ rights.  

USA Employment Lawyers helps meet these needs with skill and dedication. We are focused on representing groups of workers who have similarly suffered wage theft at the hand of their employers or who have had their biometric information unlawfully collected. 

Our team of experienced attorneys fights relentlessly to protect workers’ rights in Chicago and the surrounding areas. We believe in justice for employees, and we hold employers accountable for their conduct.

We have helped thousands of hard-working people recover millions of dollars.

You can set up a free case evaluation with our employment attorneys by calling (800) 483-0998 today. 

Biometric Privacy 

The term “biometric privacy” refers to protecting employees’ unique biological traits, such as fingerprints, facial recognition data, iris and voice scans.

Your employer may unlawfully collect your biometric information in a variety of ways. For example, your employer may require you to scan your finger on a timekeeping device when you clock-in and clock-out of work each day. Your employer may also require you to use facial scanning devices for purposes of timekeeping as well. Regardless of why or how your employer collects your biometric information, before doing so, they are required to provide you with specific notice of the collection and obtain written consent from you.

If your biometric information has been taken without your prior written consent, or if your employer has failed to notify you what they are going to do with your biometric information, how they are going to store it, and when they are going to destroy it, you may be able to recover up to $5,000.00 for each willful or intentional violation of law.  

Privacy laws are constantly updating to address technological advancements. Our experienced biometric privacy lawyers remain informed, relentless, and dedicated to protecting client’s rights. 

Wage and Hour Issues 

Our team helps workers fight against unfair practices such as unpaid overtime, minimum wage violations, and misclassification as independent contractors. We have a deep knowledge of both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage laws. With our legal acumen, and your cooperation and participation, we can identify violations, conduct detailed investigations, and gather evidence to build a strong case against your employer.  

You earned these wages. We will help you recover what is rightfully yours. Our team focuses on representing groups of individuals who have all fallen victim to the same unlawful policies and practices. When a particular unlawful wage policy harms multiple employees, this is called a collective action. Our firm is here to stop widespread wage violations and hold companies accountable for these illegal wage practices.  

Often, employees aren’t fully aware of when their employer is cheating them, but they can tell something isn’t right. Our team helps workers understand their rights, and we expose wage theft and exploitation of workers. We have spent years earning our clients’ trust to restore fairness and balance to the workplace. 

Overtime Wages 

When employers fail to pay proper overtime wages, our team takes control. In Illinois and throughout the United States, employers have a legal obligation to pay 1.5 times the hourly wage for work performed beyond the standard 40-hour workweek. As specialists in federal and state wage laws, we can easily identify when employers violate overtime regulations. We help our clients recover unpaid overtime wages, hold employers accountable for their actions, and force them into compliance.

Employers cheat their employees in a number of ways. Many companies improperly misclassify their workforce as salaried employees or independent contractors to avoid paying them overtime wages. In other situations, employers might require you to work off-the-clock so that your time records don’t show that you worked over 40 hours in a workweek. These off-the-clock hours add up very quickly, especially when this policy affects hundreds of workers, and results in your employer stealing wages for these uncompensated overtime hours. Employers also commonly miscalculate overtime rates which results in you and your fellow employees not being paid all of the overtime wages for all of the overtime hours you worked. Your employer could be depriving you, and others like you, of thousands of dollars. 

Sometimes the employer just doesn’t get it and refuses to change their policies. When that happens, we will take even the toughest cases to trial. Our team has helped thousands of employees reclaim unpaid wages, and we have forced many employers to comply with the law. 

Tipped Employees

Employers in the restaurant industry are notorious for taking advantage of their workforce and improperly compensating tipped employees. In certain situations, an employer can pay a tipped employee a reduced minimum wage that is below the prevailing state and federal minimum wage, if, and only if, the employer first provides the tipped employee with sufficient notice of its intent to rely upon a tip credit. This notice is made up of very specific information the employer must provide to the employee before they can take a tip credit. Many employers fail to provide this notice and, when this happens, the tipped employee must be paid the full minimum wage.

Even when an employer provides the waitstaff with sufficient notice of the tip credit, many restaurants require servers and bartenders to spend more than 30-continuous minutes performing non-tipped side work. This happens most often when servers and bartenders are required to arrive to the restaurant more than 30-minutes before it opens to the public each day. When a server or bartender spends more than 30-continuous minutes performing non-tipped side work, such as cleaning and prep work, they must be paid the full minimum wage.

Many restaurants operate unlawful tip pools. Anytime a restaurant requires servers or bartenders to share any portion of their tips with a manager or supervisor, this is a violation of law, regardless of whether a tip credit is being taken. If a restaurant requires servers and bartenders to surrender portions of their tips to pay for “dine and dash” customer walkouts, broken dishes, cash register shortages, or uniforms, this is a violation of law. If an employer operates an unlawful tip pool or requires a tipped employee to pay for any of these expenses, they lose any tip credit they take, and must pay all tipped employees who contribute to the tip pool the full minimum wage.  

Restaurants also take advantage of servers and bartenders when they work overtime. When a tipped employee works more than 40 hours in a workweek, the restaurant must pay them 1.5 times the full applicable minimum wage. If the employer is permitted to rely upon a tip credit, the same tip credit taken for a regular hour may then be deducted from the overtime rate. Too often, however, the employer will pay tipped employees 1.5 times the reduced hourly wage. Every single time the employer does this, they are violating the law and taking a larger tip credit than they are permitted to take.  This deprives tipped employees of their hard-earned wages.

We fight to secure the wages clients deserve under the law. Our team is here to help resolve misclassification issues, helping to keep the workplace fair. 

Is Illinois an At-Will State? 

Yes, Illinois is an "at-will" employment state, which means that, absent a contract or a specific law to the contrary, either the employer or the employee can terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. 

This means that in Illinois, employers have significant discretion when it comes to making decisions about hiring, firing, promotions, demotions, and other employment-related matters. However, it's important to note that there are some exceptions to at-will employment in Illinois, such as when an employee is fired for discriminatory reasons or in retaliation for engaging in protected activity. If you have any questions or concerns about your rights as an employee under Illinois law, it's always a good idea to consult with an experienced employment law attorney.

If you are facing employment issues in Chicago and beyond, our attorneys are here to help. To set up a free case evaluation, contact us online right away.