Have you ever worked for a company where something seemed a little bit off about their business practices? Would you choose to accept what they told you, or would you do research to find out if they were actually obeying the law or not?

In this story, one telemarketer is in this situation. She’s suspicious about the company’s policies when it comes to paying employees, and after doing some research, she doesn’t stay silent about what she learned.

In the end, it literally pays off for her.

Keep reading to find out what happened to the company.

Why you pay your employees what they have earned.

Many years ago, I was working as a telemarketer selling security systems.

I worked in a call center, with the hours of 10am-8pm.

We were given two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break throughout the day, which we were told was unpaid.

Our pay was $290 (minimum wage @ 40 hours) + commission per week, on a draw so that if we didn’t sell enough to make the $290 it would come out of any extra we got in subsequent weeks.

OP thought something seemed off about this company.

I had a bad feeling about the job because I had never been asked to fill any sort of paperwork out at all. No tax forms, no NDA, nothing.

After a few months of working there, they started having us come in some Saturdays and at 9am instead of 10am – but our pay did not increase.

At this point, I started looking up the Fair Wage laws and found that what they were doing was completely illegal.

First, the 15 minute breaks must be paid, and also they had failed to ever pay us overtime.

Enough was enough.

I told a couple friends, and eventually got so fed up that I quit the job.

After quitting, my final paycheck was short a full week’s worth of pay, and the manager said “That’s to make up for the draw”.

I filed a complaint with the board of labor immediately, and about a month later I got a frantic call from the manager asking how many hours I had worked there.

I told him that it was his responsibility to keep records of what employees had worked there, but thankfully I had kept track of my start/end date, so I just gave him an estimate that came out to be 55 hours/week for the duration.

It worked out well for OP but not for the company.

A friend of mine who still worked for the company said they had been shut down by the government for defrauding their employees, had to pay a huge fine, and we were all getting back pay.

A few months later, I got a check for about $1,500 in the mail.

I hated working there, but I felt pretty good about the whole thing after the end. =)

Companies seriously need to stop trying to illegally underpay their employees.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person shares their theory.

An employer weighs in.

This person has heard horror stories.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an accountant who sticks to 40-hour weeks after overtime guidance, and finds he likes it.

Another person makes a really good point.

It does sound like they were paid 100% commission, it just wasn’t necessarily pitched to the employees that way.

That definitely didn’t sound like a dream job!

I’m glad she reported them and that they didn’t get away with it.