Opinion ID: 4540558
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Treble Damages for Unpaid Wages

Text: The District’s Wage Payment and Collection Law (WPCL), D.C. Code §§ 321301 to -1312 (2019 Repl.), provides basic guarantees to ensure that employers pay their workers and do so in a timely fashion. Its provisions dictate how often employers must pay their employees, D.C. Code § 32-1302 (generally, “at least twice during each calendar month”), how quickly they must do so after discharge or resignation, D.C. Code § 32-1303, and provide that the WPCL’s various substantive protections cannot be waived via “private agreement,” D.C. Code § 32-1305. In addition to those guarantees, the WPCL contains robust enforcement mechanisms, including criminal and administrative penalties. See, e.g., D.C. Code § 321307(a)(2)(B) (repeated willful violations punishable by up to “$10,000 per affected employee” and up to “90 days” imprisonment). At issue here is the provision governing civil enforcement actions, D.C. Code § 32-1308, which provides that “a person aggrieved by a violation” of the WPCL, upon prevailing in a civil suit against their employer, “shall be . . . entitled to . . . [l]iquidated damages equal to treble the amount of unpaid wages.” Id. at § 1308(a)(1)(A)(ii). This provision makes clear that treble damages are mandatory, not discretionary, if requested. Its directive that a prevailing plaintiff “shall be . . . 10 entitled to” certain relief uses familiar statutory language for imposing mandatory and non-discretionary awards. See Parrish v. District of Columbia, 718 A.2d 133, 136 (D.C. 1998) (“It is well established that the word ‘shall’ is ‘a term which creates a duty, not an option.’” (quoting Riggs Nat’l Bank v. District of Columbia, 581 A.2d 1229, 1257 (D.C. 1990))); Roumel v. Goldberg, 46 A.2d 114, 115 (D.C. 1946) (“The word ‘entitled’ means having a right to . . . .”). A treble damages award is also mandated by D.C. Code § 32-1303(4), which is redundant in these particular circumstances, as it provides that an employer “shall pay . . . an amount equal to treble the unpaid wages” whenever an employee’s wages are unlawfully withheld post-termination for thirty working days or more, as was the case here.7 Our opinion in Klingaman v. Holiday Tours, Inc., 309 A.2d 54 (D.C. 1973), further compels this result. In Klingaman, we held that D.C. Code § 36-603(d) 7 When a terminated employee’s wages are unlawfully withheld for fewer than thirty working days, § 32-1303(4) requires the employer to pay 10% of the wages withheld per day they were withheld. There is no tension between this provision and the mandatory treble damages provided by § 32-1308(a)(1)(A)(ii), as § 32-1308 is specific to those litigants who pursue civil remedies and prevail via lawsuit. An employer who has unlawfully withheld the wages of a terminated employee but has done so for fewer than thirty days may voluntarily pay the owed wages plus the lesser (10% per day) amount owed under § 32-1303(4), and thereby hope to curtail any cause for litigation and any possibility of § 32-1308’s treble damages award. 11 (1967),8 which is the predecessor to and identical in relevant respects to the current D.C. Code § 32-1303(4), “ma[de] the awarding of liquidated damages mandatory in a case arising under [the WPCL].” 309 A.2d at 55–56. So too here. The trial court was wrong to conclude that it had discretion to refuse a treble damages award when it was in fact mandated by statute. See id. at 56. Mr. Sivaraman was entitled to recover treble damages for all unlawfully withheld wages.