Unpaid wages, overtime, misclassification, retaliation, and other Kentucky employment claims.
Wage violations are rarely one-offs. An employer that rounds time clocks in its own favor, misclassifies assistant managers as exempt, or skips overtime for “salaried” hourly workers is doing it to everyone on the payroll, not just you. Each individual claim may be worth a few thousand dollars. Together, they can be worth a great…
A server’s paycheck is docked because a table walked out without paying. A delivery driver is charged for a dented bumper. A new hire is told the cost of her uniform will come out of her first two checks. A departing employee’s last paycheck is reduced to cover “training costs.” Each of these happens routinely…
You quit, or you were let go, and the final paycheck has not shown up. Maybe it arrived short. Maybe the employer says it will come “when accounting gets to it.” Kentucky law does not leave this to the employer’s convenience. There is a deadline, and there are real consequences for missing it. The deadline:…
Quick answer: Kentucky employees who are underpaid can recover the unpaid wages or overtime, an equal amount as liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees and costs under KRS 337.385, or sue under the federal FLSA. Overtime is owed at time-and-a-half after forty hours, final wages are due under KRS 337.055, and most paycheck deductions are barred…
Quick answer: A Kentucky worker paid on a 1099 is still an employee if the business controls when, where, and how the work is done. Misclassified workers can recover unpaid overtime and minimum wage under the FLSA and KRS Chapter 337, plus liquidated damages and attorney’s fees, and may be entitled to workers’ compensation and…
Quick answer: Yes. Kentucky employees can file a private lawsuit for unpaid wages under KRS 337.385 and recover the unpaid amount, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees, or sue under the federal FLSA. You do not have to go through the Labor Cabinet first, and the Kentucky claim carries a five-year limitations…
Quick answer: Kentucky courts enforce non-compete agreements, but only when they are supported by adequate consideration, reasonable in duration, geography, and scope of restricted activity, and protect a legitimate business interest such as customer relationships or confidential information. Courts may narrow an overbroad agreement rather than void it entirely. Non-compete agreements are common in Kentucky…
Quick answer: Retaliation is illegal in Kentucky when an employer fires, demotes, cuts pay, or otherwise punishes an employee for a protected activity such as filing a workers’ compensation claim (KRS 342.197), reporting wrongdoing as a public employee (KRS 61.102), complaining about wage violations, serving on a jury (KRS 29A.160), or refusing to break the…
Quick answer: Under the FLSA and KRS 337.285, non-exempt Kentucky employees must be paid one and one-half times their regular rate for all hours over forty in a workweek. An employer that fails to do so owes the back overtime, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees, for two years of violations or…
Quick answer: Kentucky employees can address wage theft two ways: file a complaint with the Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s Division of Wages and Hours, or sue under KRS 337.385 for the unpaid wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees. The state claim carries a five-year limitations period under KRS 413.120, and KRS 337.990…