Mariah Carey Sued By Personal Assistant For Wages, Overtime, And Break Violation

Mariah Carey is being sued by her former personal assistant Ylser Oliver. Oliver worked for Carey from March 2007 to June 2014. During Oliver’s employment, she claims that Carey made her work overtime (up to 16 hours a day for 7 days a week) and did not compensate her appropriately.  Oliver also alleges she was not allowed to take proper meal break opportunities. 

Some of the tasks that Oliver was assigned to do while she was Carey’s assistant included housekeeping, shopping, and traveling. In June of 2014, Oliver quit because she was fed up with the long hours and lack of overtime.  She claims she is entitled to about 4,000 hours of overtime pay.

This case was filed in Federal Court in New York, and thus if Carey’s “Assistant” was a non-exempt employee she would have been entitled to time and half for her overtime hours.  Under California law, most non-exempt employees are entitled to time and a half for overtime for hours over 8 in a day or 40 in a week.  In California, most non-exempt employees are also entitled to the opportunity to take a 30 minute non-interrupted meal break for every five hours they work.

Do you think the claims against Mariah are true or just another celebrity shake down? See our past blog posts on celebrity assistant and nanny overtime claims; Sharon Stone, Lady Gaga, Alanis Morisette.