BATON ROUGE, LA – After investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the owners and operators of a family of 11 restaurants with common ownership in Louisiana have paid $230,877 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 141 employees for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements.

WHD investigators found the restaurants violated FLSA overtime requirements when they paid flat salaries or day rates to employees without regard to the number of hours that they actually worked. These practices resulted in violations when employees worked more than 40 hours in a week, but were not paid overtime.  Additional overtime violations resulted when the restaurants paid tipped employees overtime based on time-and-one-half their direct cash wages of $2.13 per hour instead of basing their overtime on the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, as required.

Minimum wage violations resulted when the employer made deductions from employees’ wages for cash register shortages and the cost of required uniforms. The employer also failed to pay some employees for all the hours that they worked, and paid some kitchen staff salaries that failed to cover all of their hours at the minimum wage. Recordkeeping violations resulted when the restaurants failed to keep accurate time and payroll records, as required by law. 

“The violations found in these investigations are avoidable,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Troy Mouton, in New Orleans. “The resolution of these cases should remind employers to review their pay practices to ensure they comply with federal law. We encourage employers to call us, confidentially, for information about the FLSA or any of the other laws we enforce.”

The restaurants included in the investigations are Albasha Greek & Lebanese Café Nene LLC in Covington, Albasha Greek & Lebanese Restaurant NENF LLC in Hammond; Albasha Greek & Lebanese Restaurant Albasha Greek and Lebanese Restaurant Inc. in Baton Rouge, Albasha Greek and Lebanese Cafe Lebanon Inc. in Baton Rouge, Albasha Greek & Lebanese Restaurant - Slidell NENMS LLC in Slidell, Albasha Greek & Lebanese Restaurant-Metairie NENAL LLC in Metairie, Casa Maria NNMK LLC in Gonzales, Casa Maria Mexican Grill CASA NNMK LLC in Denham Springs, Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant BKBS Inc. in Brusly, Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant HAWA LLC in Prairieville, and Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant WADI Inc.  in Baton Rouge.

The Department offers numerous resources to ensure employers have the tools they need to understand their responsibilities and to comply with federal law, such as online videos, confidential calls, or in-person visits to local WHD offices.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced Cheryl Marie Stanton was sworn-in as the Administrator of the Department's Wage and Hour Division.

"I welcome and congratulate Cheryl Stanton as she officially assumes the position of Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta. "Cheryl brings with her a distinguished career including prior public service as Executive Director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce."

The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) enforces federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD enforces the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, and a number of employment standards and worker protections as provided in several immigration related statutes. Additionally, WHD administers and enforces the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act and other statutes applicable to Federal contracts for construction and for the provision of goods and services.

Stanton was nominated by President Trump on September 2, 2017, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 10, 2019.

MANCHESTER, NH – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), The Spot LLC – owner of two Burlington, Vermont, restaurants – has paid $55,546 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 91 current and former employees to resolve overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The employer also paid $2,360 in penalties for child labor violations.

WHD investigators found The Spot LLC - operator of The Spot and Spot on the Dock – violated FLSA overtime requirements when it paid employees straight-time rates when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The FLSA requires the employer to pay non-exempt employees an overtime premium of one-and-one-half times their regular rates of pay for any hours they work beyond 40 in a workweek.  

The Spot LLC also employed three 15-year-old workers outside of the hours allowed for that age group by the FLSA. Some youths worked past 11:00 p.m., later than the 9:00 p.m. limit in effect from June 1 through Labor Day, and far beyond the 7:00 p.m. limit in effect from the day after Labor Day through May 31. Minors also worked more than 3 hours on school days, more than 8 hours on non-school days, and more than 18 hours during school weeks, all in excess of what the law allows. The employer also violated recordkeeping requirements by failing to maintain required records documenting a minor employee's date of birth.

"Violating the Fair Labor Standards Act can be very costly for employers that fail to pay employees what they have legally earned," said Wage and Hour Division Northern New England District Director Daniel Cronin. "Ensuring employers comply with the law not only protects workers, it also levels the playing field for employers who are already in compliance. We encourage employers to reach out to us for understanding wage and hour laws."

WHD's Northern New England District Office in Manchester, New Hampshire conducted the investigation.

Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Division, contact its toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the Division. Additional information about the requirements of the child labor laws for teens, parents, educators and employers is available at the YouthRules! website.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it has issued a new opinion letter that addresses compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). An opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the individual person or entity that requested the letter.

The opinion letter issued today is:

• FLSA2019-6, addressing whether a service provider for a virtual marketplace company is an employee of the company or an independent contractor under the FLSA.

This letter responds to a request on behalf of a particular virtual marketplace company. It concludes that the workers who provide services to consumers through this specific company's virtual platform are independent contractors, not employees of the company. To make this determination, WHD applied its longstanding and unchanged six-factor balancing test, derived from Supreme Court precedent:

• The nature and degree of the potential employer's control;
• The permanency of the worker's relationship with the potential employer;
• The amount of the worker's investment in facilities, equipment, or helpers;
• The amount of skill, initiative, judgment, or foresight required for the worker's services;
• The worker's opportunities for profit or loss; and
• The extent of integration of the worker's services into the potential employer's business.

"An important role of the U.S. Department of Labor is to ensure that employers who want to do the right thing have clear compliance assistance," said Keith Sonderling, Acting Administrator of the Department's Wage and Hour Division. "Today, the U.S. Department of Labor offers further insight into the nexus of current labor law and innovations in the job market."

The Department offers a search function allowing users to search existing opinion letters by keyword, year, topic, and a variety of other filters; and encourages the public to submit requests for opinion letters to WHD to obtain an opinion or to determine whether existing guidance already addresses their questions. The Division exercises its discretion in determining whether and how it will respond to each request.

LONGWOOD, FL – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Competitive Edge Group Inc. – operating as Competitive Edge Landscaping and based in Longwood, Florida – will pay $44,280 in back wages to 75 employees for violating the overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found Competitive Edge Group Inc. violated the FLSA's overtime requirements when the employer paid employees flat rates per day without regard to the number of hours they actually worked. This practice resulted in overtime violations when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek yet were not paid overtime. Investigators found additional overtime violations when the employer began paying on an hourly basis, but still failed to pay overtime when employees worked beyond 40 hours per week. When the employer did begin to pay overtime, the employer erroneously excluded bonus payments from workers' regular rates of pay, resulting in paying overtime rates lower than those required by law. Investigators also found the employer failed to maintain required payroll records, an FLSA recordkeeping violation.

"Most workers - including those paid by the day, by the job, by the unit, or on a weekly salary - are still entitled to overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel White, in Jacksonville. "We encourage all employers to use the tools the U.S. Department of Labor offers to learn about their responsibilities and to avoid violations."

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd.

DURHAM, NC – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), five Subway fast food franchise locations in North Carolina – owned and operated by Mahmoud Alkurdasi and Hala M. Saleh – have paid $13,970 in back wages to 150 employees for violating the minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found the employer failed to pay employees for time they spent working before and after their scheduled shifts, performing tasks such as counting the cash in the register and other opening or closing procedures. Instead, the employer paid only for scheduled hours. This practice of failing to pay workers for time they had worked resulted in minimum wage violations when workers' wages dipped below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour due to this unpaid time. The Subway locations - two in Fayetteville, and one each in Raleigh, Lumberton, and Hope Mills - also made deductions from workers' pay to cover register shortages and to pay for deficiencies that needed to be corrected when workers remade sandwiches or salads for customers. These deductions resulted in additional minimum wage violations.

The employer also failed to combine hours when employees worked at multiple locations for them during the workweek. This practice resulted in overtime violations when the employees' total hours between the restaurants totaled more than 40, but the employer paid the workers with separate checks from each location, at straight time. WHD also found Alkurdasi and Saleh violated federal recordkeeping requirements by failing to keep accurate records of the number of hours employees worked, and by failing to maintain accurate records of employees' addresses, gender information, or birth dates for employees under the age of 18.

"Employers must pay employees for all of the time that they work, whether or not that time is on the official schedule. The employer bears the responsibility to record all of the time that employees actually work," said Wage and Hour District Director Richard Blaylock, in Raleigh, North Carolina. "The U.S. Department of Labor works hard to ensure that employees receive the wages they have rightfully earned. We encourage all employers to make use of the resources we provide to help them understand their responsibilities and operate in compliance with the law. Violations like those in this case can be avoided."

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd.

MANCHESTER, NH – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Nordic Construction Services LLC – based in Berlin, New Hampshire – has paid $38,678 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 45 employees to resolve overtime and record keeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found that the employer paid employees straight time rates instead of overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, and failed to pay employees for travel time that the employer should have counted as work time. Nordic Construction also failed to record travel hours, resulting in a recordkeeping violation.

"Ensuring that employers properly pay employees for all the hours that they work not only provides workers with the wages they have earned, it also levels the playing field for employers who operate in compliance and must compete directly with those who do not," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel Cronin in the Northern New England District Office. "We encourage employers to contact us with any questions they may have, and to use the wide variety of tools we offer to help them understand their obligations and to comply with the law. Violations like these can be avoided."

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the Division's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the Division.

LUBBOCK, TX – In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor, Allegiance Behavioral Health Center of Plainview doing business as Inspirations, a subsidiary of Allegiance Health Management Inc. based in Shreveport, Louisiana, will pay $22,000 in back wages and compensatory and liquidated damages to a former employee for violating the anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The Department filed a lawsuit against the employer in federal court after an investigation by the Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) found that the family counseling company violated the FLSA's nursing mothers provision when it denied the employee adequate time and space to express milk. The employee had no choice but to express milk in a parking lot accessible to both her co-workers and the public. Faced with continuing that practice or leaving her employment, the employee quit her job, which the Department deemed a constructive discharge under the FLSA's anti-retaliation provisions.

"Employers and employees should understand that forcing a nursing mother to express milk in a restroom or in public is against the law," said Wage and Hour's Southwest Regional Administrator, Betty Campbell. "The law requires employers to provide women who are nursing with privacy during their break time. The Wage and Hour Division provides compliance assistance to help employers understand their responsibilities to their employees, including the right of nursing mothers to request the time and space they need to express milk without interruption and without fear of retaliation."

Under the FLSA, employers are required to provide a place - other than a bathroom - shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, where an employee can express breast milk. Employers are also required to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for up to one year after the child's birth each time the employee has need to express milk. Learn more about the FLSA's nursing mothers' provisions.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the Division.

Civil Action No.:  5:18-cv-00100

BOISE, ID – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Any Weather Exteriors LLC – a construction contractor based in Star, Idaho – will pay $51,328 in back wages and liquidated damages to 25 employees for violating the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found that Any Weather Exteriors LLC paid employees straight-time rates for all the hours that they worked and failed to pay them overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The employer also misclassified two employees as independent contractors, resulting in additional overtime violations when the employer failed to record the number of hours that they worked, and subsequently failed to pay them overtime. Any Weather Exteriors also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements when it failed to maintain time and payroll records, and display required FLSA posters.

"Employers must comply with federal laws and ensure employees receive the wages they have rightfully earned," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Thomas Silva, in Portland, Oregon. "Simply because a practice may appear to be common in an industry doesn't mean that it's legal. The U.S. Department of Labor provides many tools to help employers understand their responsibilities to their employees and comply with the law. We encourage employers and employees alike to contact us for assistance. Violations like those found in this case can be avoided."

Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the Division's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool for workers who may be owed back wages collected by WHD.

HESSMER, LA – To resolve a lawsuit filed with the Department of Labor's Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ), Earl Roy Farm of Louisiana LLC – based in Hessmer, Louisiana – has signed consent findings and will pay $71,611 in back wages to 76 employees, and $33,388 in civil money penalties. The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigated the company and found it had violated the labor provisions of the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program.

Specifically, the WHD found that Earl Roy Farm of Louisiana LLC:

• Gave H-2A workers preferential treatment by paying American workers lower wages than those paid to H-2A workers;
• Failed to reimburse H-2A workers for the full cost of their transportation from their home towns to the farm and back again, as the law requires;
• Failed to ensure that workers were offered at least three-fourths of the work hours disclosed in its contracts;
• Failed to provide local workers engaged in similar work as the H-2A workers with written work contracts; and
• Unlawfully laid off American workers.

"Any employer seeking H-2A workers must be ready and willing to abide by all the program's requirements, and must not attempt to shift any of the employer's costs onto the workers," said Wage and Hour Division Southwest Regional Administrator Betty Campbell. "The U.S. Department of Labor will continue to safeguard American jobs, level the playing field for law-abiding employers, and ensure that workers are paid the wages that they legally earned. We encourage employers to contact the Wage and Hour Division by phone, online, or to attend any of our outreach events for assistance and to learn more about their responsibilities."

The H-2A temporary agricultural program establishes a means for agricultural employers, who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers, to bring non-immigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature.

The program requires an employer to attest to the U.S. Department of Labor that it will offer a wage that equals or exceeds the highest of the following: the prevailing wage for the occupation and geographic area, applicable federal minimum wage, state minimum wage, or local minimum wage. This wage must be paid to the H-2A workers and certain similarly-employed U.S. workers during the entire period of the approved labor certification. The program also establishes recruitment and displacement standards to protect similarly employed American workers.

The Department offers numerous resources to ensure employers have the tools they need to understand their responsibilities and to comply with federal law, such as online videos, confidential calls, or in-person visits to local WHD offices.

Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool for workers who may be owed back wages collected by WHD.