Noel Cintron, who served as Donald Trump’s personal driver, is suing the Trump Organization for about $350,000. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
President Trump’s longtime personal driver filed a lawsuit against Trump’s company on Monday alleging that Trump owes him more than $200,000 in unpaid overtime wages.
Noel Cintron, 59, who said he served as Trump’s driver for more than 20 years, alleges that Trump did not pay him the time-and-a-half overtime wages required under New York state law. Instead, he was paid a flat yearly salary, which was set at $62,700 about 2003 and rose to $75,000 in 2010, according to his suit.
Cintron — who still worked for the Trump Organization in security as of Monday, according to his lawyer — served as Trump’s driver until mid-2016, when the real estate developer became the Republican presidential nominee and the Secret Service took over.
In his suit, Cintron says his working hours varied widely: he would start at 7 a.m. and stay on duty until the Trump family no longer needed him in the evening. That added up to at least 50 hours a week, his suit says.
Larry Hutcher, Cintron’s attorney, said that Cintron had asked Trump Organization executives to be paid the extra amount he was owed for overtime work. He was rebuffed, Hutcher said.
“The proverbial straw hits the camel’s back,” said Hutcher, explaining why Cintron had filed suit now. “He finally says, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said in a statement that “Mr. Cintron was at all times paid generously and in accordance with the law. Once the facts come out we expect to be fully vindicated in court.”
Cintron is suing for about $350,000, Hutcher said, which would cover the unpaid wages, penalties, interest and attorneys’ fees.
Cintron’s lawsuit said he has only received two pay raises from Trump since 2003. And one, he said, came with an unusual condition — to get a $7,000 pay increase, Cintron was told he had to give up his Trump Organization health insurance.
‘They said, ‘If you go on your wife’s health insurance benefits,’ ” then the Trump Organization would give Cintron a $7,000 raise, Hutcher said. Hutcher said that deal saved the Trump Organization money, since the raise they gave Cintron was less than the $17,866 that Trump’s company had previously spent on his health insurance.
Hutcher said that Cintron had repeatedly asked Trump for raises in the past, but — beyond those two instances — he was rebuffed.
“You’re always asking for raises. It was never granted,” Hutcher said. He said Cintron stayed because “he needed the job.”
