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Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
Press Releases
U.S. Department of Labor |
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EL PASO, Texas -- Ice Castles Daycare Too Inc., doing business as Ice Castles Too Learning Center and Child Care, has agreed to pay 92 former and current employees $23,391 following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that found minimum wage violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act at two of the company’s El Paso locations.
“These employees did not receive legally required wages for all hours worked,” said Cynthia Watson, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in the Southwest. “Daycare workers are among the lowest paid employees in the nation, and this employer profited by paying them below the federal minimum wage.”
The investigation by the division’s Albuquerque District Office found that the company failed to pay employees for training time, and made illegal deductions from employees’ paychecks for uniforms and other items, resulting in wages falling below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Additionally, the company failed to maintain records required under the FLSA..
Ice Castles Daycare Too, which provides child daycare services on Horizon Boulevard and Alps Drive, has agreed to fully comply with the FLSA in the future.
The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. In general, “hours worked” includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer’s premises or at any other prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal work activity to the end of the last principal activity of the workday. Additionally, the law requires that accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.
For more information about the FLSA and other federal wage laws, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or its Albuquerque office at 505-248-6100. Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.
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