A waitress waited on tables during the week but when she asked to pick up extra shifts on the weekend she agreed to work only for tips until business picked up. After she worked for several hours over weekends she filed a wage claim for unpaid compensation. The New Hampshire Department of Labor hearing officer held that despite the oral agreement that she was only working for tips, the employer was not relieved of its obligation to pay an hourly wage. The waitress was awarded almost $4,000 for the weekends she worked over the year.

Because the employer had not kept accurate employee records it was not able to reduce the amount she claimed she was owed. Employees should get whatever their compensation understandings are in writing. Otherwise, you can end up hoping that you win a Department of Labor hearing. Of course, the employer has the duty to reduce the deal to writing and keep accurate records, though many small employers don’t do that.

As a technician for a heating company providing on-site maintenance and service, the employee was required to travel. Because he was an hourly employee he used a time card and at the end of each work day had to return to the home base of the operation to punch out. The employer and an employee had an oral side agreement that the employee would not be paid for travel time from his last service stop to the employer’s residence which was where the company was located. After the employee filed an unpaid overtime claim he obtained almost $15,000 from the Department of Labor. The employee’s records indicated he was owed approximately a half hour’s pay for each day involved but because the employer could not produce better records, the estimate by the employee was adopted as the proper measure of unpaid wages. Once again, oral side deals can get an employer into trouble.