Opinion ID: 4521050
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Wage Practices of Vitale’s

Text: When Torres began working at the Grand Rapids location in 2010, Salvatore told him that he would be compensated at an hourly rate. However, because Vitale’s was a small business, Salvatore explained, Torres would not be paid an overtime premium for hours he worked in excess of forty. Salvatore further explained that Vitale’s was not required to withhold taxes for any wages earned for any hours worked in excess of forty hours per week. Therefore, Salvatore and Belinda instructed Torres—and all other employees—to keep two different timecards: one to track the first forty hours of the work week, and a second to track any hours worked in excess of forty. This method of reporting hours came to a head in 2018 when a customer threatened that he would report Salvatore’s failure to pay overtime to the IRS. After the confrontation, Belinda instructed all employees to take their second timecards home with them. She further instructed the employees to bring their second timecards to her home over the weekend, and that she would pay the employees in cash—still at a straight-time, rather than overtime rate—the following Monday. Torres claims that he only began to question Vitale’s non-payment of overtime and timekeeping practices after this confrontation.