Gas Station Workers Rewarded for Breaking the Law

“Owners of 24 gas stations in New Jersey will have to pay attendants more than $2 million in back compensation for failing to pay workers minimum wage and overtime since January 2017,” reported Caitlyn Stulpin for NJ.com on May 2, 2018.

I left these comments:

So these workers broke the law by agreeing to work for an outlawed wage--that is, a wage below what the politicians say they should have been paid.

If it’s true that these business owners broke the law, then by definition so did the workers. Yet the employees get rewarded with “back pay” to compensate for being paid what they agreed to work for. There certainly is a double standard here. You have two parties mutually conspiring to skirt the wage laws, and one gets punished while the other gets rewarded. It looks like its the 5th and 14th Amendments that are being skirted *.

I suggest levying the fine equally between the employers and employees. Better yet, let’s demand that our government protect the rights of employers and employees to forge voluntary compensation agreements without any government interference.

* [According to the Legal Information Institute,

The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from denying any person within its territory the equal protection of the laws. This means that a state must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances. The Federal Government must do the same, but this is required by the Fifth Amendment Due Process.

The point of the equal protection clause is to force a state to govern impartially—not draw distinctions between individuals solely on differences that are irrelevant to a legitimate governmental objective. Thus, the equal protection clause is crucial to the protection of civil rights.

I think a convincing constitutional case can be made to challenge minimum wage laws on equal protection and due process grounds. I wonder if its ever been attempted.]

Related Reading:

If We’re to Have Labor Laws, Should They Work Both Ways?