Back pay

“ That discretion is narrowly limited, by the fact that as to 'back pay' the Board can in no instance award any greater sum than 'back pay' for the period in which the employee was absent from his employer's services by reason of his employer's violation of the law. ”

“ Arguing that the purpose of back-pay awards is to 'deter unfair labor practices,' id., at 364, and believing that a substantial award of back pay would be sufficient to achieve such deterrent effect, the court modified the Board order to eliminate all back pay accruing after July 1, 1959, thus reducing the awards of some 37 strikers who had not yet received complying offers of reinstatement by that date. ”

“ The statute commands that the Board must order 'back pay' if the policy of the Act will thereby be effectuated. At least two persons are immediately involved in 'back pay', as here used; one who pays and one who receives. The propriety of a 'back pay' order as an instrumentality for effectuating the Act's policies, must therefore be determined by the manner in which it influences the payor and payee, one, or both. The central policy of the Act is protection to employees from employer interference, intimidation and coercion in relation to unionization and collective bargaining. ”

“ In such a proceeding the Board does not concern itself with the amount of back pay actually owing. This is excluded from the proceeding in the interest of the efficient administration of the Act. The determination of specific liabilities may involve a protracted contest. An employee who is wrongfully discharged may, for example, not be entitled to back pay because he failed to accept other employment. ”

“ A worker is not given 'back pay' by the Board equal to what he would have earned with the employer but for the unlawful discharge but is given that sum less any net earnings during the time between discharge and reinstatement. ”

“ Back pay liability shall not accrue from a date more than two years prior to the filing of a charge with the Commission. Interim earnings or amounts earnable with reasonable diligence by the person or persons discriminated against shall operate to reduce the back pay otherwise allowable. ”

“ Wronged employees are at least as much injured by the Board's delay in collecting their back pay as is the wrongdoing employer. In view of 'the economic hardship caused by many years of undeservedly substandard earnings,' lengthy delays 'must render the back pay award a wholly inadequate and unsatisfactory remedy' to the employees for the company's refusal to reinstate them. ”

“ In order to effectuate the policies of the Act, Congress has allowed the Board, in its discretion, to award back pay. Such awards may incidently provide some compensatory relief to victims of unfair labor practices. ”

“ He will earn more in one month than the next, more in one quarter than the next. Seasonal variations in the business may result in a high total income for one quarter and a low total for the next. A discharged employee, who secures other employment at a normal and constant rate of income, may achieve a yearly rate of pay substantially equal to that of his regular job. That apparently is this case. If, therefore, back pay is computed in this case on a quarterly basis, the employee will probably receive an award in excess of the amount of income he would have earned had he not been discharged. ”

“ The same problem would arise under the Social Security Act, 49 Stat. 625, sec. 210 (c) .↑ The Social Security Board itself has recommended the inclusion of 'back pay' in wages. Annual Report of the Federal Security Agency, Social Security Board (1945) , sec. 5, p. 38: 'Certain items of income which are now not considered 'wages' under the definition in the act, should be included as wages, so that the base for benefits would represent the worker's actual remuneration from employment. ”

“ It has been proven again and again that I never drew the back pay, never saw a dollar of it, and took no action in reference to it except to sign an order on the sergeant-at-arms to cover it into the general Treasury, and this was done before the convention at Warren. I say more. Some of these men who have been so long pursuing me, have known these facts for many months. During the stormy times of the salary excitement, a citizen of this county wrote a letter to a prominent official in the Treasury of the United States, wanting to know whether Mr. ”

“ It was found that laborers, especially those pursuing the building trades, often were paid the prevailing rate of wages but were compelled by their employers to give back or kick back a percentage of the pay which they had lawfully earned and received. ”

“ Should they not give these out of their own wages, which so often they squander on trifles? If this has happened to you, do not forget that you are obliged to pay back to the person concerned all that you gave to the poor without the knowledge or consent of your employers. ”

“ Simon Armour was past only the agility, not the strength of his youth, and in his feats of might and skill he cherished pride. Without being offensively conceited, he regarded himself—and well might—as the superior of any baronet such as his daughter's husband, and desired of him no recognition of the relationship. All he looked for from any man, whether he stood above or beneath his own plane, was proper pay for good work, and natural human respect. ”

“ Worse than nothing at all. Although I stole cash and valuables amounting to more than seven thousand dollars, I was penniless when I finally succeeded in getting back to New York.
A good share of the money had gone to the lawyers. A thousand dollars of it I had been obliged to leave behind when I made my escape from the Boston police, and the trayful of diamond rings I had stolen was hidden in Springfield, where I would not dare show my face for many months. Even the rings on my own fingers had gone to pay my lawyers' fees and my bail. ”

“ But, sir, the punctuality of the payment has produced of late great inconveniencies; for there has been frequently a necessity of removing men from one ship to another; and it is the stated rule of the pay-office, to assign every man so removed his full pay. These men, when the government is no longer indebted to them, take the first opportunity of deserting the service, and engaging in business to which they are more inclined. ”

“ It was a short step from jewel-stealing to sneak-thief operations in banks. Sneak thieves and confidence men began to frequent the back rooms of the Mandelbaum establishment. It became a clearing house for crimes of larceny—big and small.
Many able and successful burglars are unimaginative, and, left to their own devices, would never discover anything to rob. These earnest but unimaginative souls hung about the premises as if it were an employment agency waiting for the "boss" to find a job suited to their particular talents. ”

“ My experience in the underworld has thoroughly convinced me that no criminal is wholly bad. I know that beneath the rough exterior of many of the desperate criminals with whom I came in contact beat hearts that were tender. To-day I shall relate some of the more striking incidents which come back to me and which illustrate some of the good qualities possessed by the notorious criminals with whom I associated.
I am reminded of an experience I had with Dan Nugent, the bank burglar. ”

“ Obviously 'pay-wages' ordinarily means for the employer to hand over money or orders convertible into money at face. The absence of the word 'tip' from the statutory extension of the ordinary meaning of wages makes it quite clear that not every gratuity given a worker by his employer's customer is a part of his wages. If Congress had had it in mind to include in wages all tips, the words were readily available for expressing the thought. ”

“ Over 60% of such companies paid some type of premium or gratuity to their wage earners for work performed on Sundays or holidays, the extra pay ranging from 25% to 100%, in addition to the regular rate of pay. ”

“ It will not be pretended by any one, that the advance made to him was a portion of his yearly pay, yet the statute declares that the yearly pay shall be 'all the pay, compensation, and allowance that shall be received by any such officer or other person, under any circumstances whatsoever, except for travelling expenses, for which ten cents per mile may be allowed.'
Surely the phrase, 'under any circumstances whatsoever,' is broad enough to comprehend any casualty to which any person may be exposed. ”

“ Where there are no overtime premium payments the rule for determining the regular rate of pay is to divide the wages actually paid by the hours actually worked in any workweek and adjudge additional payment to each individual on that basis for time in excess of forty hours worked for a single employer. ”

“ No officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation, in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or for any other service or duty whatever, unless the same is authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor expressly states that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation. ”

“ I was about to escape when a redfaced woman arrived and shouted:
"You hussy, what do you mean by hugging my husband?"
The detective hesitated and looked back, but he would have let me go if Lizzy hadn't been fool enough to call out:
"Sophie, find me a lawyer and get me out of this."
That was enough even for the thick-headed police detective, and he took us both away. The old man refused to testify against us. He was afraid he would not be believed and the scandal would get back to his home town. He was right; it would have. ”

“ A few days later, John Nugent, an able operator and a policeman in good standing, was presented, and a little later on Abe Coakley, the venerable cracksman, was introduced. Finally, the famous "Banjo Pete" Emerson and Billy Kelly and Eddie Goodey were brought to bear on the wavering fears of the watchman.
Shevelin was finally overawed by this powerful aggregation of skill, persistence, and audacity, and consented to join Hope's band of operators. As I look back over that group of burglars, I am sure there was never before gathered together on one enterprise such a galaxy of talent. ”

“ Ordered that the men employed by the receivers in the operation of the road and the conduct of its business shall be paid their monthly wages not later than the 15th of the month following their accrual. If the earnings of the road are not sufficient to pay the wages of the men as herein directed, the receivers are hereby authorized and required to borrow from time to time, as occasion may require, a sufficient sum of money for that purpose. ”

“ Such practices are recognized to be incidental to the employee's general employment and are given consideration in fixing the rate of pay for it. They are not in the nature of exactions of pay for something not performed or not to be performed. ”

“ In their effort to reach an agreement here both the union and the company treated the company's ability to pay increased wages as highly relevant. The ability of an employer to increase wages without injury to his business is a commonly considered factor in wage negotiations. [4] Claims for increased wages have sometimes been abandoned because of an employer's unsatisfactory business condition; employees have even voted to accept wage decreases because of such conditions. ”

“ Wage payment, therefore, is a form of insurance to the workingman; he gets something definite instead of taking chances he is ill prepared to take. Wage payment is a form of credit to the laborer whose labor has not yet produced the distant gratification. The employer advances to the workman the value of the future gratification, discounting it at the prevailing rate of interest. The darker side of the wage bargain is that the "cash nexus," as Carlyle expressed it, is too often the only bond between the parties. When the wages are paid, the employer considers his obligations discharged. ”

“ No agreement that brings about a reduction in the amount received under the present wages scales, plus bonus and allowances, to be accepted.
Any who from ill-health or defective eyesight, brought about in their employment, are taken off the footplate, shall be retained in the companies' employment, and be paid not less than the rate of pay they were receiving when taken off the footplate. ”

“ Moreover, except for the fact that the payment has been deferred, such payments are as much a part of the employees' regular basic compensation as overtime pay or the payment of salary while the employee is absent on vacation. If in the end the employee elects to receive additional compensation instead of a paid vacation, he or she is receiving the same kind of premium pay that is available for holiday or weekend work. ”

“ Each land agent and labourer being a Retainer of the Company shall receive and be paid a fixed salary in return for his services and shall not by perquisites commissions or any other means whatever either directly or indirectly receive or acquire any pay profit emolument or advantages whatever other than such fixed salary from out of or by means of his office or position as a Retainer of the Company. ”

“ Officers being entitled to halfpay, such as choose to emigrate, should have provisions &c allowed them as above & quarterly notes with interest for three years full pay to commence & be computed from the time they begin their march, in full discharge of all such half pay. As I have already observed that it may be objected depreciations & other payments have been made good; but can a just debt be equitably discharged by certificates of very small comparative value, or depreciated paper money? Certainly no, consequently the States are still bound to make good the deficiency. ”