It is a common practice in hotels to pay maids a flat rate for each room they clean. This is perfectly legal, so long as the maids are paid the minimum wage for all of the hours they work. Unfortunately, for many maids, especially in large hotel chains, the per room rate does not result in a minimum wage.
One of the tricks hotels use to keep from paying a fair wage is to schedule the number of rooms maids must clean in one day based on the assumption that it only takes twenty minutes or so to clean a room. But it usually takes far longer, which means that maids end up making on average much less than the minimum wage on average. When maids have to work more than 40 hours per week, they are also deprived of overtime under the per room payment system.
Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber, LLP fight for the rights of workers to earn a fair wage. If you or someone you know is a hotel maid, please contact us to discuss your legal options.