Employer:                              Tito’s Taqueria LLC,  898 Putney Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301

Type of action:                      Administrative settlement

Investigation sites:                Greenfield, Massachusetts

                                                          Keene, New Hampshire

                                                         Brattleboro, Vermont 

Investigation findings:          The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Northern New England District Office found Tito’s Taqueria, a counter service restaurant, illegally required employees at three locations to share a portion of their tips with managers and failed to pay workers time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek.

The Fair Labor Standards Act forbids owners and managers from keeping any portion of an employee’s tips for any purpose, 

Resolution:                             In an administrative settlement with the division, Tito’s Taqueria paid $62,452 in back wages and withheld tips as well as an equal amount in liquidated damages to 126 affected employees across three locations. The employer also paid the department $12,214 in civil money penalties to resolve its violations. 

Quote:                                    “The violations by Tito’s Taqueria to shortchange workers by misusing their tips to pay managers is a problem we commonly find in the restaurant industry,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire. “The Fair Labor Standards Act forbids employers from keeping employees’ tips for any purpose, whether directly from customers or through a tip pool.”

In fiscal year 2023, the Wage and Hour Division successfully recovered more than $29.6 million in back wages for nearly 26,000 food service workers nationwide and assessed $6.1 million in civil money penalties in the food services industry.

Workers and employers can contact the division confidentially at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including the agency’s restaurant compliance assistance toolkit, an overview of FLSA protections for restaurant workers and Workers Owed Wages, a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Workers and employers alike can help track their hours worked and pay by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.  

Employer name:             LaLobe Inc.

Investigation site:           11661 Preston Road, Suite 140

                                                   Dallas, TX 75230

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found LaLobe Inc., a family owned piercing salon that services adults, kept three employees’ tips illegally. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act,  tips are the property of employees who receive them and employers cannot keep their tips or allow managers and supervisors to keep any portion of employees’ tips. In addition, the piercing salon also failed to keep records of hours employees worked and the amount of tips owed to workers, as required by federal law.

Back wages recovered:  $64,656 in owed back wages                                

Quote: “Federal law forbids employers from keeping any portion of employees’ tips or allowing them to be shared with managers or supervisors,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Jesus A. Valdez in Dallas. “The errors by LaLobe Inc. in this case should serve to remind other employers not to make the same mistakes and to make certain their pay practices comply with federal law.”

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – also available in Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

ATLANTIC BEACH, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $288,979 in back wages and liquidated damages for 92 employees after its investigation found an Atlantic Beach property management group’s improper pay practices denied them overtime wages they earned.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division found American Management Group of North Florida LLC, operating as American Management Group, claimed an overtime exemption illegally and shaved hours off some workers’ time sheets to avoid paying overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek. Investigators also determined the employer paid some of the affected workers a flat salary and failed to include bonuses and commissions in their regular rate to calculate the overtime rate. The company’s actions violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

In addition to paying back wages and damages, American Management Group was assessed a $15,000 civil money penalty to address their violations’ willful nature. 

“Some employers believe paying employees a salary releases them from their legal obligation to pay them their full earned wages for hours over 40 in a workweek. The illegal misuse of the overtime exemptions is a widespread and pervasive problem that denies workers their full, hard-earned wages,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Vilma Bell in Orlando, Florida. “In this case, American Management Group has learned shortchanging employees comes with costly consequences.”

Headquartered in Atlantic Beach, American Management Group of North Florida LLC, a real estate management firm operating primarily in the Southeast, is a Jeff Klotz company. Jeff Klotz is the founder and CEO of The Klotz Group of Companies which serves as a parent company for operating subsidiaries and investment partnerships, including investments in more than 125,000 apartment units, 43 ground-up developments and other e-commerce, healthcare, printing, manufacturing and marketing projects. The company employs over 450 employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

Workers and employers can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions, and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the agency, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). The division also offers online resources for employers, such as a fact sheet on Fair Labor Standards Act overtime requirements.

Workers and employers can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android or iPhone Timesheet App for free in English and Spanish. 

Ed. Note: The original version of this release stated The Klotz Group of Companies LLC operated as American Management Group, and illegally claimed the overtime exemption. In fact, the American Management Group of North Florida LLC is incorporated separately and entered into the settlement agreement to resolve its violations. 

Employer name:               PAR Construction LLC

Investigation site:            1424 Ryan St.

                                                   Lake Charles, LA 70621

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found PAR Construction paid 19 non-exempt employees straight time for overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, denying these workers the time and one-half overtime premium required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

 Back wages recovered:  $37,273 in back wages

                                                    $37,273 in liquidated damages

Quote: “When employees work premium hours, they should get premium pay,” said Wage and Hour district Director Troy Mouton in New Orleans. “Most construction workers are due time and one-half their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Work in the construction industry can involve variable hours, but the obligation to pay overtime premiums is constant.” 

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from. Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – also available in Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

DETROIT, MI – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent preliminary injunction against the Michigan operator of Leo’s Coney Island franchise locations in Clarkston, Dearborn, Livonia and Sterling Heights with a history of defying overtime regulations and shortchanging employees’ wages.

Under terms of the preliminary injunction, issued by U.S. District Judith E. Levy in the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit on July 15, 2024, Sterling Ponds Plaza LLC, the franchise locations’ operator and Kyriakos ‘Ken’ Vlahadamis, the restaurants’ co-owner and operator, agreed to maintain accurate employee timecards and stop denying employees overtime pay. He also agreed not to discuss the ongoing litigation with employees or retaliate against anyone for cooperating with investigators for the department’s Wage and Hour Division.

On July 8, 2024, the department’s Office of the Solicitor asked the court for the temporary restraining order. The court set a short briefing schedule and a hearing on the temporary restraining order within seven days of filing. Vlahadamis and the companies agreed to the injunction, which the court approved on July 15, 2024.

The department is also asking the court to hold Vlahadamis liable for civil contempt for violating a 2018 court order forbidding violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“The court’s action to ensure Vlahadamis and his Leo’s Coney Island franchises retain the records required by the Fair Labor Standards Act is an important first step to ensuring full compliance with the law,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago. “The preliminary injunction also includes an important safeguard for workers—requiring the defendants to inform their employees that they have the right to communicate with department officials about this case without fear of retaliation or discrimination.”

The filing follows execution of an administrative search warrant by the department’s Wage and Hour Division during which investigators found Vlahadamis kept two sets of timecards: one reflecting hours worked under 40 per week and another reflecting hours over 40 per week. Division investigators allege Vlahadamis regularly shredded the timecards used to track overtime hours and paid workers straight-time rates for all hours worked when the employer was legally obligated to pay these employees time and one-half their regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek. 

In 2018, the same federal court entered a consent order and judgment prohibiting Vlahadamis and Leo’s Coney Island Sterling Heights from future FLSA violations, including overtime and recordkeeping violations. The department has asked the court to hold him in civil contempt because his alleged actions violate the 2018 consent order.

“Our investigations have found that, despite agreeing to comply with a 2018 court order forbidding him from future federal wage violations, Ken Vlahadamis was again denying his employees their full wages by refusing to pay overtime and keep required payroll records,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Timolin Mitchell in Detroit. “His actions and refusal to follow the law are harmful to the hard-working employees who are being shortchanged by his illegal actions.” 

Haley Jenkins in the department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor in Chicago is litigating the case.

With origins dating back to 1914, Leo’s Coney Island opened its first location in 1982 in Farmington Hills and began franchising in 2005. Founded using a limited menu offering fries, burgers and Greek salads, its current offerings include Greek specialties and breakfast. There are more than 70 Leo’s Coney Island locations in Michigan. This case relates to the four Leo’s Coney Island franchises co-owned and operated by Vlahadamis.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

For more information about the FLSA, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions, regardless of where they are from, and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Download the agency’s free Timesheet App for Android and iOS devices, available in English and Spanish, to help track work hours and pay.

DOL v. Sterling Ponds Plaza LLC,. Et. al. 

Case 5:24-cv-11758-JEL-CI

Employers:    Community Living of Brookfield LLC, Brookfield, Wisconsin

                             Matthew Sebuliba, owner and operator

 Action:           Consent judgment and order

 Court:             U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee

The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal court judgment requiring a Wisconsin residential group home and its owner, Matthew Sebuliba, to pay 27 caregivers a total of $27,184 – representing $13,592 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – after investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division identified overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping violations in its review of the employers’ payroll records from March 26, 2021 to March 25, 2023.

In addition to ordering the payment made, the July 12, 2024, order by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin forbids the employers from future violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

The company will also pay two employees $2,815 in compensatory damages to resolve allegations that Community Living of Brookfield LLC retaliated against the workers for questioning the employer’s pay practices. 

Community Living has also agreed to post the consent judgment at its two residential group homes for senior and disabled adults and to distribute know-your-rights materials about the FLSA to current employees. The company operates Community Living of Brookfield LLC and Best Choice Community Living LLC in Milwaukee. 

Quote: “Caregivers in group homes provide essential personal and medical assistance to residents that enables them to maintain quality of life and dignity and are often paid some of lowest wages in our nation,” said Wage and Hour District Director Kristin Tout in Minneapolis. “Employers that retaliate against workers who exercise their rights to question pay practices are clearly violating the law. All employers are responsible for knowing and complying with federal wage laws and paying workers their rightfully earned wages.”

Background: In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $31.8 million in back wages for workers in the healthcare industry. 

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – also available in Spanish –to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

U.S. Department of Labor v. Community Living of Brookfield LLC, Matthew Sebuliba

Civil Action No. 24-CV-792-JPS-JP

Employer name:                    

KDK Transport Co.

Investigation site:                  

203 Front St. W., Coeburn, Virginia

Investigation findings: Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the non-emergency medical transport company applied the Motor Carrier Exemption mistakenly and, by doing so, failed to combine all hours worked by drivers, including driving and wait times, when computing total weekly hours for overtime wages for 60 drivers. These actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act which requires all non-exempt employees to earn time-and-a-half their regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek.

Back wages recovered:       $170,439 for 60 workers

Quote: “Companies must understand their legal responsibilities and obligations to pay employees all of their earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director John DuMont in Pittsburgh. “The Wage and Hour Division has professionals ready to assist employers in avoiding compliance issues.”

Background: Employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. The division also offers numerous online resources for employers, such as a fact sheet on Fair Labor Standards Act wage laws overtime requirements. Workers who feel they may not be getting the wages they earned may contact a Wage and Hour Division representative in their state through a list and interactive online map on the agency’s website. Workers and employers alike can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android Timesheet App for free. 

Learn more about Wage and Hour Division.

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $1.1 million in back wages and damages from operators of a Los Angeles garment contractor that denied overtime wages to its employees deliberately. Now, the department wants to distribute these wages to all of the people who earned them.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division is actively trying to locate workers who have yet to collect the overtime wages owed to them by Good Cash LLC, its associated entities – Good Cash Inc., Premium Quality Apparel LLC and Premium Quality Apparel Inc. – and owners Ramon Tecum and Marisela Romero. The division’s investigation determined the employers denied overtime wages to a total of 165 people, many of whom labored an average of 52 hours per week. 

So far, the division has returned nearly two-thirds of the $1.1 million collected to affected workers and remains determined to identify and locate the remaining workers who stand to benefit. 

“Despite attempts to cover their tracks, these employers have been held accountable for intentionally shortchanging their garment workers’ overtime pay,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Kimchi Bui in Los Angeles. “Garment workers depend on the wages they’re paid to make ends meet. Our primary concern now is ensuring that people once employed by these unscrupulous employers get the justice they deserve and the wages they earned.”

If you or someone you know was employed by any of these companies between Aug. 3, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2023, please contact the division’s Los Angeles District Office at (213) 894-6375 to find out if they are owed back wages and damages.

The division recovered the back wages and damages as part of a consent judgment the department obtained in December 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The department’s Office of the Solicitor had sued the garment contractors and company owners alleging they failed to pay workers required wages and falsified pay records. The department also alleged they issued fraudulent checks and tried to interfere with investigators by pretending to be workers. 

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions, regardless of where they are from. The division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages through the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – free and available in English and Spanish – to track hours and pay. 

This news release is also available in Spanish.

GUAYNABO, PR – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation has recovered $238,746 in overtime wages owed to 1,024 solar panel and system installers employed by a renewable energy company in Puerto Rico that failed to include various bonuses in their salaries and calculated overtime wages incorrectly.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that Windmar Home/Windmar P.V. Energy Inc.’s actions caused a significant shortfall in the employees’ wages and violated the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In a settlement agreement with the division, the employer agreed to pay the back overtime wages and to future FLSA compliance.

“Our investigators identified that more than 1,000 solar industry workers were being shortchanged because their employer failed to include performance bonuses when calculating overtime wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jose Vazquez in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. “Employers in Puerto Rico’s fast-growing solar industry should familiarize themselves with regulations governing their pay practices to avoid the often significant financial consequences that come when these laws are violated.” 

The division is currently distributing monies owed to workers covered by this investigation from Windmar and is trying to locate current or former employees who believe they are owed back wages from this investigation. Workers who believe they are owed wages are encouraged to use the division’s Workers Owed Wages online search tool to claim their back wages or to contact the division’s Caribbean District Office in Guaynabo at 787-775-1947 if they have questions.

Based in San Juan, Windmar P.V. Energy Inc./Windmar Home is a renewable energy company and a subsidiary of Windmar Group, headquartered in Orlando, Florida.               

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division and overtime. Workers and employers can also call the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) confidentially with questions, regardless of immigration status. The division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Download the agency’s free Timesheet App for Android and iOS devices, available in English and Spanish, to help track work hours and pay.

Lea en Español

Employer:      RNR Tire Express

                       1510 E Kimberly Road                     

                        Davenport, IA 52807     

Investigation findings: An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the operator of an RNR Tire Express franchise in Davenport failed to include non-discretionary bonuses in the regular rate of pay when calculating overtime pay, a Fair Labor Standards Act violation. The employer also did not maintain timecards for hourly paid employees.

RNR Tire Express is a national franchise tire and custom wheel retailer with more than 180 U.S. locations. 

Resolution: The company paid a total of $33,846, representing $16,923 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for 11 employees. 

Quote: “Inaccurate overtime calculations by employers are among the most common violations found by our investigators. Employers unsure of how to determine an employee’s rate of pay for overtime purposes should contact the Wage and Hour Division for assistance or and visit the overtime compliance assistance webpage we offer,” explained Wage and Hour District Director Marietta Taylor in Des Moines, Iowa.

Background: Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, overtime pay, a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – also available in Spanish –to ensure hours and pay are accurate.