Budziszek v Mayo Foundation
Mayo Clinics Allegedly Saving $6.5 Million/Year By Not Paying Salaried Employees Properly
An $18+ million class action has been filed against the Mayo Foundation and its subsidiary clinics in Arizona, Minnesota, and Florida on behalf of employees who allege that the health provider's method for paying salaried workers shorts employees while netting the company millions of dollars in violation of state labor laws. The action seeks three years' worth of missed back pay.
Named plaintiff James V. Budziszek, a Mayo salary administrative specialist since 1999, alleges that Mayo pays salaried workers 26 times a year instead of the 26.1 times a year that they should be paid. The result is an underpayment of eight hours a year. In essence, the action alleges that each salaried worker should get one extra paycheck a year for one day's pay. Employees allegedly recoup the lost pay after eight or nine years, in the form of extra paydays that fall into subsequent calendar years--but many employees move to new companies before they ever get the money that they earned in years past. The next extra paycheck is allegedly scheduled to appear in 2008.
The action alleges that this method of payment nets Mayo about $6.5 million a year. Approximately 6,000 salaried Mayo employees, including a majority of the clinic's physicians, may be eligible to participate in the action.
