Messing With People’s Pay Is Lower Than Low

I used to work at a chain retailer. As I often worked the closing shifts, I got stuck with doing most of the returns and cleaning at the end of the day. The closing manager was ex-military and ran our minimum-wage a**es as if we had enlisted; he had no problem belittling us in front of customers and often demanded we stay as late as midnight fixing displays and making the store as nice as possible for the opening staff.

After a week of closing with [Manager] every night, I noticed that my paycheck was severely short. We used cards to clock in and out, so they should have reflected that I had stayed late, but it wasn’t adding up.

Me: “Hey, [Manager], I think there’s something wrong with the time clock.”

Manager: “Why?”

Me: “My paycheck is missing several hours.”

Manager: “No, you’re probably just bad at math. Weren’t you homeschooled?”

Me: “That has nothing to do with this. I have an app that tracks my hours to compare my pay. It’s definitely short at least ten hours.”

I showed him the app I use and my pay stub to compare the two.

Manager: “Just because your little app says you’re here, it doesn’t mean you are. Besides, you’re scheduled until 9:00; you get paid until 9:00.”

Me: “Then I’m not staying after closing.”

He stood up, towering over me by over a foot.

Manager: “You will do your job as it is outlined in your job offer.”

Me: “Which states that I get paid $7.50 per hour worked, not per hour scheduled.”

Manager: “Get out.”

I went to my coworkers and they all noticed the same thing. That night, when 9:00 rolled around, we all clocked out and went to dinner at a local diner, instead. [Manager] called repeatedly but none of us answered.

I was pretty shaken up, so I called off the next day and contacted Human Resources, outlining what had happened to my paycheck and what the manager had said. They opened an investigation and found that [Manager] had edited our punches so that it looked like everyone left at 9:00 and he cleaned the whole store by himself.

I did eventually get paid for the time I worked, as did everyone else he had shorted. He was terminated.