Minimum Wage and Overtime Reform Scholarship
The Employment and Commerce Law Group is committed to working to protect their clients and other workers from illegal employment practices in the workplace. This includes ensuring workers are compensated for minimum wage and overtime. “Wage theft” is the failure to pay monies rightfully owed to an employee as wages. Wage theft can be conducted through various means, but the most common is when employers fail to pay overtime or minimum wage to their employees. Studies have shown that wage theft costs employees across the nation millions of dollars each year.
The Employment and Commerce Law Group is thrilled to announce the establishment of their Minimum Wage and Overtime Reform Scholarship, which will be awarded to a student who is interested in reforming the minimum wage and overtime laws to stop “wage theft”.
Many states around the US, including Tennessee, currently have no mandatory minimum wage and overtime laws. However, employers must adhere to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which states employees are entitled to receive 1 ½ times their hourly rate when they work more than 40 hours a week. The act also says employees are entitled to be paid at least $7.25 per hour for all hours worked.
In order to tackle these concerns, Employment and Commerce Law Group has established a $1,000 scholarship to address “wage theft”. Applicants should author an essay which discusses whether or not minimum wage and overtime legislation should be changed, including what fines or punishments (if any) should be levied against employers who commit wage theft, and if changes should be made; what would be the effect of these changes?
Scholarship Eligibility
To be eligible for the Minimum Wage and Overtime Reform Scholarship, applicants must be currently enrolled in or planning to attend an accredited community college, undergraduate, or graduate program in the United States. They also must show excellent academic standing with at least a 3.0 GPA.
The scholarship recipient must articulate their position on wage reform and employment legislation. There is no right or wrong answer we are seeking, we are looking for an essay which is clear and presents passionate but reasonable solutions in addressing these problems.
Application
All interested applicants should send:
- School transcript
- Unofficial resume
A 1000-1500 word essay evaluating current federal minimum wage and overtime laws, the problems of wage theft, if reform to these laws are needed, and how this would affect employers and employees.
Deadline
The deadline to apply for this scholarship is January 31, 2019.
Please send your complete application to info@eclaw.com with the subject line: “[Name of Applicant’s] – Minimum Wage Reform and Overtime Reform Scholarship” by the January 31 deadline to be considered.
Thank you for your interest in the 2018 Minimum Wage and Overtime Reform Scholarship.