If you don’t think bad grammar in English can cost you, think again. In this case, one teeny, tiny, little comma actually cost one company $5,000,000. That’s one expensive error!
The Serial Comma Strikes Again
Also known as a serial comma, an Oxford comma refers to the last comma in a list of items.
In the sentence,
the Oxford comma appears between cheese and cream.
The Oxford comma is optional in most cases. You can choose to omit if the meaning of the phrase is still clear. However, there are some situations when the Oxford comma is critical, and this is one of those times.
The Case Of The Missing Comma
In 2014, truck drivers at a Maine dairy company filed a lawsuit for lost overtime wages.
The company’s original contract stated that certain jobs were exempt from overtime. According to the contract, the following jobs did not qualify for overtime pay:
POSITIONS EXEMPT FROM OVERTIME:
The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
- (1) Agricultural produce;
- (2) Meat and fish products; and
- (3) Perishable foods.
In the list of exemptions, there is no Oxford comma after shipment!
With an Oxford comma, then distribution would clearly be a separate job, not a part of packing for shipment/distribution of. But alas, there was no comma in sight.
Therefore, you could argue that distribution was, in fact, eligible for overtime pay. And that was exactly what the drivers were claiming.
The drivers argued that they were entitled to overtime pay at 1.5 times normal pay for any extra hours worked per week.
Their case was tried by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
The court ruled in favor of the drivers!
The truck drivers were awarded $5 million dollars to compensate for 4 years of lost overtime wages.
That’s quite a victory for them– and for all the staunch grammarians out there. It probably wasn’t a happy ending for the contract writers, though.
Always Read The Fine Print
The contract has since been changed to include “distribution” in its exemptions. The new contract looks like this:
The canning; processing; preserving; freezing; drying; marketing; storing; packing for shipment; or distributing of:
- (1) Agricultural produce;
- (2) Meat and fish products; and
- (3) Perishable foods.
With the semicolons in place, there can be no denying that distributors are exempt from overtime conditions.
The Fine Print of Punctuation
So now that you know the story of the $5-million comma, let’s review the lessons we can learn from this punctuation pitfall:
- The Oxford comma is considered optional, as long as the sentence is perfectly clear without it.
- Small grammar mistakes can cause big problems. Language is a valuable skill that can lead to success (or failure) in life.
- Always read the fine print in any contract you sign; there could be millions at stake, for you, or against you.
Hey teachers! Want a PDF lesson plan of this article to share with your students? Check it out here!
What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear your reactions in the comments!
Source: The New York Times, 2018
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