Guaranteed Rate faces wage and hour lawsuit

A class action lawsuit was recently filed against mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate alleging that the company had failed to comply with California time and attendance laws when compensating its loan officers.

The defendant is accused of intentionally misclassifying the officers as outside salespeople in order to exempt them from minimum wage and overtime regulations dictated under the California Labor Code. However, the employees claim to have spent more than half their working time conducting business from home, which meant they did not qualify to be paid below state requirements.

According to the complaint, loan officers were paid a percentage of the profit from a loan sale, which led to pay periods during which they received less than minimum wage. Additionally, the company is alleged to have known about the fact that the employees were working more than eight hours in a single work day or 40 hours in a work week but did not compensate them.

Last month, a similar lawsuit was filed on behalf of Californians working for pharmaceutical corporation Novo Nordisk.