Lawyer Fights Against Wage Ordinance

Andrew Froman’s was quoted in Business Observer’s Coffee Talk on April 1, 2015. The article “Lawyer Fights Against Wage Ordinance” discussed how the St. Petersburg City Council will give a new localized wage theft ordinance a second reading April 16, but one attorney hopes to stop it.

Andrew told Coffee Talk that with federal, state and even common law protections already in place, the measure in front of the St. Pete council is overkill. “It’s entirely unnecessary,” he said. “There are multiple avenues already in existence that allow for an employee who thinks he has been denied proper payment of wages by his employer to seek redress.”

Even worse, Andrew stated that pursuing wage theft claims through federal court could award wronged employees double what they owe.

Yet even if Florida laws aren’t strong enough to tackle wage theft, common law – handling claims of unjust enrichment – is more than enough for employees to get what they deserve in wages, said Andrew. He cited an ongoing Manatee County case, where someone who accused his employer of not being paid properly made such a claim.

“At the end of the day, all these start to weigh on employers, especially small employers,” Andrew said. “It’s yet another thing they have to worry about, and it’s unnecessary.”