But the case/complaint may not be over as Trump Model Management LLC stated on her H-1B Visa application that she would be paid $75,000 per year, implying a salary and stated on her application that this would be for full time work, and even if paid hourly, it was presumably for fulltime work as stated on the H-1B Visa application for a minimum 40 hour per week hourly wage amounting to $75,000 per year and since she wasn’t paid anything near that amount in addition to some very questionable deductions having been taken from her wages, it may well be in violation of the H-1B Visa program requirements.
If someone is brought in on a H-1B Visa as a full time hourly employee, even if no work is available and they work less than 40 hours per week, the employer is obligated to pay them for non-worked hours to make up to 40 hours of pay, as long as they were willing and available to work.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/models-lawsuit-donald-trump-agency-dismissed/story?id=37878264
Garten said the agency served as Palmer’s manager, not as her employer, saying “there was no employer-employee relationship.” Instead, he said the arrangement with Palmer was typical for model managers who hunt for prospects and then hope to attract interest in their look from fashion industry customers.
Oh contraire. If she was brought into the US under an H-1B Visa applied for by Trump Model Management LLC, she most defiantly had to have had an employer-employee relationship with Trump Model Management LLC as the program does not allow foreign workers to come here as temporary workers as independent (1099) contractors, they must be treated as employees and as employees, they have the same rights as any other US worker with respect to pay and payroll deductions.
In Palmer’s case, her mother in Jamaica signed the contract specifying that expenses and fees would be deducted. At the request of ABC News, Scafidi reviewed the expenses and deductions that the Trump firm charged to Palmer. While some items, such as hair and make-up, are typically charged against a fashion model’s earnings, Scafidi said she was surprised to see a $4,000 administrative fee added to the 20 percent management fee.
“The administrative fee seems high and unusual to me, given that there was also a commission built in,” she said.
Of equal concern, Scafidi said, is the immigration process used to import the foreign models.
Gehi, Palmer’s lawyer, said he believes Trump Model Management has repeatedly abused the H-1B visa rules by certifying to the government that the fashion models will earn $75,000 or $100,000 a year -- figures the agency reported in publicly available federal records -- and then failing to pay them anything close.
Robert Divine, the former top immigration official, told ABC News that declarations of wages filed with the federal government are not intended to be estimates. Rather, they are intended to prevent U.S. employer “from using this program to hire relatively cheap professional foreign labor.”
“That document shows how the worker is going to be paid,” Divine said. “So the worker has an expectation they're going to be paid that amount.”
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/10/news/trump-model-visas/
Experts say that the firm was required by law to pay the amount stated on Palmer's visa -- in this case, $75,000 a year. Even more egregious, they say, was that the Trump agency didn't pay the "prevailing wage" determined by the U.S. government (which is based on the industry and location).
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency (USCIS) confirmed that a sponsoring company "must pay the actual wage or the prevailing wage, whichever is higher" -- meaning it was illegal to pay Palmer below either listed wage. "Employers may never pay below the prevailing wage," the agency said in a statement.
And she didn't even get to keep that full amount. It was almost entirely eaten up by taxes, a 20% commission to the Trump agency, administrative fees and modeling-related costs like $75 walking lessons and a $200 dermatology visit.
Taxes are what they are and are not accounted for when calculating the prevailing wage, however the commissions, “administrative fees” and other payroll deductions may not be legal under either NY DOL laws or the H-1B Visa program. Under NY law, it does not matter if such deductions were in her contract or not. An employer cannot legally, even with an employee’s verbal or written consent, make deductions from wages either under NY DOL labor regs or under the H-1B visa program that are not for the benefit of the employee – those would be things like payroll deductions for employer provided benefits like health insurance, a 401k plan, a voluntary charitable deduction, etc.. FWIW, persons coming into the country and hired under a H-1B Visa cannot be paid and treated as 1099 independent contractors.
http://www.dol.gov/wecanhelp/h1bworkers.htm
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/20/655.731
Bottom line is that Trump, despite his claims that he wants to reform it or end it, he has regularly used and abused the H-1B visa program to his advantage.