Denver Employment Law Blog

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, recently filed formal allegations against several companies accusing them of unlawful targeted recruiting that, according to the allegations, was designed to discourage older workers, and in some cases women, from applying for certain positions.

According to some experts, this action represents the first time the EEOC has formally applied anti-discrimination laws to online targeted advertising, such as through Facebook. In this context, targeting advertising is the practice of using a social media platform, like Facebook, to make sure that certain groups of people see ads for open positions, while others do not see these ads.

There is nothing worse than feeling as if your employer is not paying you for the time you've been spending on the job. Whether it's a few missing hours of pay each week or paychecks that never seem to add up correctly, you may be confused and frustrated. The good news is that Colorado has steps in place to help you seek the compensation that you're owed from your employer. Employers who don't pay could be fined or penalized for their actions. Best of all, you may be able to stay out of court if you are owed $7,500 or less in wages.

The Colorado Wage Protection Act is making significant changes in how the state's wage and hour laws work. The Wage Protection Act was implemented in January 2015 and established a procedure to help adjudicate situations where there were unpaid wages of $7,500 or less per employee. The new act also increased the fines that employers could have imposed on them for making these errors in payments. The act also provides for attorneys' fees if the employees were paid less than minimum wage.

If you work in sales, the amount that you make often depends on the number of sales you close and the overall price tag associated with those transactions. Many employers use a commission system to motivate salespeople to do the best that they can. Some may not even pay salespeople an hourly wage or a salary, meaning the staff becomes dependent on commissions for income.

It is common for businesses to offer commission based on the number of sales someone makes or as a percentage of the sale you close, with reasonable adjustments made for discounts offered to customers or clients. Some companies will pay more in commission the more sales you close, offering higher commission rates to people who are in their top tier of salespeople. Other companies will put a cap on commissions, effectively reducing the income of their top salespeople.

As you've gotten older, there have been times when you thought that you were being treated differently at work because of it. You know that you're not young or as spry as you once were, but you have a solid education in your field and can stand tall among the best in your arena.

Recently, things have been getting out of hand. You went to talk to a supervisor about a project, and he laughingly told you to, "Hold on a minute, old man." You don't think he or others, who are younger than you, are taking you seriously, and you've started to notice changes in the level of respect you receive.