Feds sue auto repair shop that paid former employee in pennies | Hacker News Reader

Feds sue auto repair shop that paid former employee in pennies

nbcnews.com

28 pointstype07 comments

Employee reported them for wage theft. Company retaliated and further defamed said employee. Apparently the wage theft was bad enough for the government to get involved.

Hopefully the fine will be enough close the business. This guy gives bosses a bad name.

"After receiving media attention for the penny stunt last year, a page called “Pennies” appeared on OK Walker Autoworks' website."

The "pennies" page was taken down earlier today but don't worry (http://web.archive.org/web/20210822161735/https://aokwalker....)

incredible!

how does archive.org work exactly? do they have crawlers scouring the web 24/7?

I know it’s bad, but I really can’t see why this is illegal - especially since they included additional funding to cover the employee’s expenses of processing the money.

If paying in pennies is illegal, then we should simply abolish the penny because it’s not with the time or effort.

The Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts."

Now, private businesses can refuse to take cash before they render a service. But my understanding is that US tender must be accepted for all debts.

They're not being sued fir the pennies thing. They're being sued for other issues.

The pennies were in payment of his final paycheck. The suit is in regard to unrelated wage theft from unpaid overtime and discrimination/retaliation (presumably for reporting the wage theft), as well as failure to maintain required records.

It's actually legal to refuse payment of even smallish debts with coins in Australia.

Some rationale I can think of probably that's unnecessarily burdensome on the person being paid to convert it into useful denominations.

There is also the very real possibility that the person receiving the pennies, that could weigh any amount, has no ability to transport the payment.

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