I posted this in legal advice but didn't get any replies, hopefully I can get some advice here.
So I've been working for this company almost two years, and last year I got a job offer to move departments within the company. This job included working the evening shift starting at 1:00 PM, and a one dollar shift differential which I was not made aware of and did not expect due to my inexperience. The offer letter only says $22/hr for the position, there was no mention that the real offer was for $21/hr plus the $1 shift differential. After a few months working there I was bumped up $.50, and verbally told I would get another $.50 when we eventually moved to a new facility and night shift would end, that's when I found out my real rate. So the idea was when the move happens and I move to day shift I would lose my $1 differential but gain $.50 leaving me back at $22.
The move was supposed to happen in September, but of course it didn't happen until early December. Since I've been working the normal shift my pay had not changed, nothing added or taken away I've been making $22.5/hr since then until near the end of March so four months essentially. We had our reviews in early march, I was promised a 3% raise in about two pay periods with back pay. When I checked my paycheck the pay period before the raise was supposed to be in effect, I saw that my rate had been reduced to $21.50. So here's the legal issue:
I had been making $.50 less than the rate I was hired at for, for a whole pay period with no notification. The law is that I need at least a whole pay period's time notice if my pay was going to be reduced. I walked out as soon as I logged onto the work computers on payday and saw my new rate, went home and spent a little too long writing an email explaining why I was upset and why I walked, and instead of making things right they wrote me up and threatened my job. I got the %3 raise on my new pay rate, $21.50/hr, so now I make $22.15 when the 3% should have been on the $22 I should have been making.
I know giving bad raises isn't illegal, but I looked it up and it is definitely against the law to not give someone a pay period's notification that their rate is being reduced. I've already reached out to a law firm and will be talking to someone today, so I just wanted advice about what I should ask and any other forms of recourse I can take. Do you think someone would take this case pro bono? Should I report it to the labor board first or threaten that? I think it's a pretty cut and dry case.