Your employer may be paying you less than the federal minimum wage, which is currently at $7.25 per hour. Any business that engages in business that deals with other states must pay the federal minimum wage, no matter how or how few employees it has. In practicality, the vast majority of businesses are subject to minimum wage.
Further, your state’s minimum wage might be even higher as your local country or city government might have a more generous minimum wage. For example, in California, the minimum wage is currently $9.00 per hour and $10 per hour after January 1, 2016. Employers have to respect and follow whichever wage law is most generous to employees.
Your first action should to be to tell your employer, in a respectful way, that he or she is wrong. In other words, point out that he or she is legally required to pay you the minimum wage. If your employer does not act on this, then you should contact an employment lawyer. You may be entitled to collect back pay, which is the money you would have earned had you been paid the actual minimum wage.
David Payab, Esq. from The Law Offices of Payab & Associates can be reached @ (818) 918-5522 or by visiting http://payablaw.com/