It is important that any doctor who believes that they have been underpaid to find out whether this is deliberate wage theft or not. There are state and federal laws that protect doctors from wage theft. Employers know that but hope doctors do not know their rights.
If you can provide evidence that your employer is not paying you the agreed amount that was decided when you first took up employment as a doctor, you may be able to take legal action against your employer.
Doctors work hard in often stressful conditions and this means the pay they negotiated with their employer should be what they should expect to get at every pay day. Unfortunately, this does not always happen, and a doctor may notice less money than usual in their paycheck.
Often this reduced pay is just an administrative error and once notified the pay department is only too glad to put the error right. However, this is not always the case and all too often a doctor’s employer deliberately pays less than the negotiated amount in the hope that the doctor is too busy to notice the underpayment.
What to Look for on Your Paycheck as a Doctor
If you look at your bank account details and discover that you did not get paid the expected amount, the first thing you should do is look at your paycheck to see if you have been underpaid. If you believe that you have been underpaid, you should approach your employer’s HR department to request an explanation.
It might be possible that money had been simply deducted which you had either forgotten about or you were not aware of. All paychecks must list all items on it, including hours worked, tax deducted, overtime hours and any other deductions.
The first part to check on your paycheck is that your net pay amount is what you typically were paid. After establishing that you should sieve through the remaining items on the paycheck as indicated below:
- Were your tax and insurance contributions calculated correctly?
- Were the deductions what you normally expect?
- Was the correct weekly/monthly wage paid?
- If you did overtime was it paid at time and half?
- Are the hours worked correct?
Doctors should not be paid less than the federal or state minimum, depending on whether the state or federal minimum is the higher. For example, if you work in California as a doctor, the state’s minimum hourly wage is greater than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, so your hourly pay as a doctor should be no less than the state minimum wage. If the deductions (not including tax and insurance) are such that your pay drops below the state minimum, then this could be a type of wage theft.
What to Do if You Are a Victim of Wage Theft as a Doctor
If you have suffered from wage theft, it is quite likely that you will not be the only doctor working for your employer who has gone through this experience. It would be in your interest to ask some of your work colleagues who are doctors to find out if they have been receiving less money on pay day than they normally receive.
Whatever you discover from other employees, you will still need to go to your accounts department or HR with your paycheck and discuss why you thought you were not being paid what was agreed. Make sure you make a record of their response.
You may be lucky and find that the mistake can be explained easily, and you will receive the lost wages as a doctor in your next paycheck. If you are not satisfied with the hospital’s explanation, and are still certain you have been underpaid, you should file a wage theft claim with the Wage and Hours Division at your closest Department of Labor.
The Labor Commissioner might be able to get the underpayment sorted out or things could become much more challenging. Your employer could face a fine or even imprisonment if there has been a serious and deliberate breach of state or federal employment law.
Find Help If You Were Underpaid as a Doctor
You should talk to an employment lawyer about your claim as this situation would be something they would have handled many times before. The lawyer will outline your legal options, including filing a lawsuit against your employer for wage theft. Fill out the Free Case Evaluation today!
