Snoop Dogg Dodges California Overtime
June 9, 2014, 08:00:00AM. By Jane Mundy
Los Angeles, CA:
Snoop Dogg is the latest celebrity to get slapped with a California overtime lawsuit. Three of the
rapper’s former bodyguards are suing him for $3 million, including overdue wages, general, compensatory and punitive
damages, and all legal fees.
Torrey Mitchell, Donnel Murray and Ryan Turk allege that Snoop Dogg fired
them in January 2014 because they complained about their working
conditions, according to Courthouse News Service. The overtime lawsuit, filed in
Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges the three men ran errands for Snoop
Dogg and his family, drove him to recording studios, clubs, concerts, red
carpet affairs, and to his separate apartment used for entertaining his many
female acquaintances, as well as working their security jobs. Further, they
were only able to sleep three hours a day when Snoop was touring and they
were not given morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, which is a violation of
the California labor law.
The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs were paid $300 a day by Snoop while on
tour, and at other times $25 per hour plus an overtime rate of $37.50 per
hour after 12 straight hours of work. The California labor code states that
workers must be paid overtime after eight hours of work. The trio said they
never received double time.
Snoop isn’t the only celeb dodging overtime payments. Last year, singer Alanis Morissette was hit with a California
overtime lawsuit by her former nanny and Lady Gaga was sued by her former personal assistant for $380,000 of
alleged unpaid overtime. Jennifer O’Neill claimed she was always on call for Gaga but was never paid for working more
than eight hours a day. However, she received a yearly salary of $75,000, unlike the Raiderettes, cheerleaders for the
NFL’s Oakland Raiders, who are paid $1,250 a year.
The Raiderettes filed a lawsuit in January in Alameda County
Superior Court, claiming the Raiders failed to pay minimum wages
and overtime, and illegally required the cheerleaders to pay
expenses out of their $125-per-game salaries. The lawsuit also
claims that the Raiders:
• impose arbitrary fines on the cheerleaders for such offenses as
bringing the wrong pom-poms to practice;
• illegally withhold the Raiderettes’ salaries until the end of each
season, in violation of California law requiring pay at least twice a month; and
• illegally prohibit the cheerleaders from discussing their wages with one another.
According to the lawsuit, the cheerleaders’ wages worked out to less than $5 an hour, taking into consideration the
hours of unpaid work they perform at rehearsals, 10 charity events per season and the team’s annual swimsuit calendar
photo session.
As of July 2014, California’s minimum wage is $9 an hour, $1.75 more than the federal minimum wage.