OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and injunction to recover $66,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 13 restaurant workers whose Oklahoma City employer kept employee tips and failed to pay overtime in violation of federal labor regulations.

Entered by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the Oct. 23, 2024, judgment against Zachary Edge, owner and operator of Edge Craft LLC, follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that determined the employer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by doing the following:

• Paying straight time wages for all hours over 40 in a workweek rather than overtime as required.
• Incorrectly applying the tipped employee designation.
• Failing to keep required wage records. 
• Using an inappropriate exemption for a manager, leading to overtime violations.

“Tips are solely the property of workers who earned them. An employer that takes a tip credit against its minimum wage obligations is not allowed to keep any portion of employees’ tips or share them with non-tipped workers,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Michael Speer in Oklahoma City. “The Wage and Hour Division is determined to ensure workers receive all of their hard-earned wages and stands ready to assist employers in understanding their responsibilities under the 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. Workers and employers can call the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from. Calls are confidential and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. 

Download the agency’s Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices, now available in English and Spanish, to ensure hours and pay are accurate. 

Employer name:               CREOKS Health Services, operating as TruHealth Integrated Care

Investigation sites:         4103 South Yale Ave., Suite C 

                                                   Tulsa, OK 74135                                   

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found CREOKS Health Services – doing business as TruHealth Integrated Care – the operator of 24 healthcare locations across eastern Oklahoma and one in Mountain View, Arkansas, illegally fired an employee for taking federally protected medical leave. The department found that the employer failed to respond to an employee’s request for Family and Medical Leave Act in a timely manner, which prevented the employee from exercising their legally-protected right to FMLA leave. The employer subsequently fired the employee for job abandonment without considering their FMLA eligibility. The division determined the employer owed the former employee lost wages. TruHealth Integrated Care is contracted by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and provides various healthcare services.       

Back wages recovered:  $15,000                                   

Quote: “Compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act is not a choice employers can make. An employee eligible for this protected leave must be allowed to exercise their right and use this leave without fear of losing their job,” said Wage and Hour District Director Michael Speer in Oklahoma City. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that employees’ rights are protected and will use all available remedies when violations are found.”

NEW ORLEANS – The findings of two recent U.S. Department of Labor investigations show misclassification of employees as independent contractors is an ongoing concern for home care industry workers in Louisiana and throughout the nation as the practice deprives them of their full wages and other important benefits.

Investigations by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that two south Louisiana companion care providers - We Care Homes Inc. and Special Needs Unlimited LLC - misclassified a total of 158 employees as independent contractors and, by doing so, failed to pay them $422,137 in overtime wages earned for hours over 40 in a workweek.

“Home care workers employed by We Care Homes and Special Needs Unlimited typically worked long hours providing essential services for people unable to care for themselves. In exchange, they deserve to be paid their full wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Troy Mouton in New Orleans. “We are determined to protect workers’ rights and hold employers accountable for meeting their legal obligations.”

To resolve the violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the division recovered $422,137 in back overtime wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for a total recovery of $844,274. Specifically, the division recovered $634,119 from We Care Homes for 123 affected employees and $210,156 for the 35 affected employees at Special Needs Unlimited LLC.

“Employers unsure about whether their pay practices comply with federal regulations should contact their local Wage and Hour Division office for compliance assistance,” Mouton added.

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. The division protects workers regardless of where they are from and can communicate with workers and employers confidentially in more than 200 languages at 1-866-4-US-WAGE (487-9243). 

 Download the agency’s Timesheet App, which is available in English and Spanish for Android and Apple devices, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.   

Learn more about employee misclassification.

Employer:      Green Maintenance Services Inc., Jan Jarosz

Action:            Fair Labor Standards Act consent judgment and order

Courts:           U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Chicago

Findings:        A federal court entered a consent judgment ordering Green Maintenance Services Inc., a Chicago area sanitation company and its owner Jan Jarosz to pay a total of $60,084, representing $29,083 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, plus post-judgment interest to 10 current and former employees.

Entered on Dec. 27, 2024, the consent judgment and order resolves a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor on April 17, 2024. 

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the Chicago-based sanitation company and Jarosz violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act when they failed to pay employees overtime at time and one-half their average hourly rate for hours worked over 40 in a week from at least April 7, 2021, through April 6, 2023. Investigators also noted one employee did not receive a final paycheck. 

The consent judgment restrains the sanitation company and Jarosz from future violations of the FLSA. Additionally, Green Maintenance Services agreed to classify sanitation workers as employees and not independent contractors. The Wage and Hour Division  found the company misclassified two of its sanitation workers as independent contractors. The company will pay the back wages in three monthly installments. 

Quotes: “For more than 85 years, federal law has required that employees receive time and one-half their hourly rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a week. This judgment puts those earned wages back in the hands of former employees shortchanged by Green Maintenance Services and Jarosz,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Tom Gauza in Chicago. “The Department of Labor will always protect the rights of workers in all industries to receive the pay they have rightfully earned.” 

Attorney Correll L. Kennedy in the department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor in Chicago litigated the case.

Background: Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division.

U.S. Department of Labor v. Green Maintenance Services Inc., Jan Jarosz

Civil Action No.: 1:24-cv-03094

SAN DIEGO – Seventy employees of two California ice manufacturers will receive their share of more than $1 million in back wages and damages recovered by the U.S. Department of Labor after investigators determined the companies’ common ownership withheld $527,687 in overtime earned by workers deliberately. 

The department’s Wage and Hour Division found the two employers - San Diego Ice Company in San Diego and California Ice Company in Lake Elsinore - paid employees regular hourly rates for all hours worked and ignored the federal requirement to track and pay time-and-a-half their regular hourly rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Many employees regularly worked an average of 16 hours of unpaid overtime each week.

“The owners of the San Diego Ice Company and California Ice Company willfully violated the rights of 70 hard-working people who work around the clock to help these companies be successful,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Jose Medina in San Diego. “The U.S. Department of Labor will not tolerate such callous and illegal mistreatment of employees who are simply trying to provide for themselves and their families. We will use all available enforcement tools to hold employers accountable for compliance.” 

The $527,687 in unpaid overtime and $527,687 in liquidated damages recovered by the division will be payable to the affected employees in a 12-month installment plan. The division also assessed the companies $36,358 in civil money penalties collectively because of the willful nature of their Fair Labor Standards Act violations.

“On average, these employees will receive about $15,000 each, a sizeable amount for people trying to make ends meet on hourly wages,” Medina added.

For more information about the federal labor rights enforced by the division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). 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. 

The division protects workers regardless of where they are from and can communicate with workers in more than 200 languages. Download the agency’s Timesheet App for Android and iOS devices, free and available in English and Spanish, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

RIDGE SPRING, SC – More than 600 temporary agricultural workers are entitled to their share of more than $132,000 recovered by the U.S. Department of Labor from a Ridge Spring employer that illegally deducted money from their wages for political donations and cleaning fees.

The department's Wage and Hour Division found that Titan Fruit & Vegetable Co. Inc. violated H-2A program regulations by requesting workers make political contributions, which resulted in the workers' adverse effect wage rate falling below the required $11.13 per hour; and by charging workers a cleaning fee, paid to a local cleaning crew, for the employer-provided housing.

The division obtained a consent finding from the department's Office of Administrative Law Judges that required Titan Fruit & Vegetable to pay a total of $338,446 to 1,341 workers. To date, more than $200,000 in owed wages has been distributed to about half of the affected workers. The division is now actively trying to locate the remaining 617 workers owed a total of $132,308 in wages.

"The H-2A temporary agricultural program helps U.S. farmers by allowing them to recruit the workers needed to harvest crops and help their businesses succeed. In return, employers have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that all workers who come legally to the U.S. under the H-2A program are paid fairly and comply with other regulations," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel in Columbia, South Carolina. "Deductions from workers' wages are forbidden unless they are explicitly included in the contract."

Investigators also found Titan Fruit & Vegetable violated H-2A program regulations by doing the following:

• Paying some H-2A workers an additional $50 per week to drive company vans to a nearby town to do laundry and shop for groceries but failing to disclose the additional pay on the job order.
• Failing to record reasons why some employees worked fewer hours than contractually offered.
• Allowing workers to travel in a vehicle that had a broken passenger window, worn and unsafe tires and did not have a charged fire extinguisher, all of which are transportation safety issues.

As a result, the division assessed the employer with $2,850 in civil penalties.

"We are asking the public to assist us in locating those workers owed wages by Titan Fruit & Vegetable Co., so we can put these hard-earned wages in the pockets of the people who worked for them," Benefiel added.

The Wage and Hour Division makes every effort to locate and notify all employees due back wages. If they are unable to find an employee, those wages are held while they continue efforts to locate the worker. If anyone believes they may be owed back wages collected by the Wage and Hour Division, they can search the division's Workers Owed Wages online database of workers who have been previously unlocated and may have money waiting to be claimed.

The Wage and Hour Division offers multiple compliance assistance resources, including an agriculture compliance assistance toolkit, to provide employers the information they need to comply with the law. The division enforces the law without regard to an employee's immigration status and can communicate with callers confidentially in more than 200 languages at the agency's toll-free helpline, 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division. Download the agency's Timesheet App for Android and iOS devices, free and available in English and Spanish, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Editor's Note: While the Wage and Hour Division counseled the employer on impermissible deductions for political donations, the division did not ultimately pursue back wages for this issue in the resolution of this case. The division strongly encourages any worker who believes they may be due back wages as part of this investigation to contact us directly.

HARTFORD, CT – The U.S. Department of Labor has reached an administrative settlement with Rhode Island’s second largest hospital and Care New England Health System to recover a total of $1.9 million in back wages and liquidated damages for 853 healthcare workers who had to work through their breaks but were not paid properly for those hours worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Hartford District Office of the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Kent County Memorial Hospital in Warwick automatically deducted 30-minute breaks from hours employees worked even though staffing needs kept them from taking those breaks. The division found employees in the emergency room and other departments worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but weren’t properly compensated when they worked through their breaks.

“The Wage and Hour Division is eager to return the $1.9 million in wages and liquidated damages we recovered to the workers who put their needs second and delivered essential care to the many people in Rhode Island who suffered during the pandemic,” said Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “An administrative resolution like this allows affected workers to collect their hard-earned wages promptly.” 

The division recovered $100,000 in civil money penalties from the hospital and Care New England Health System given the willful nature of the violations. As part of the settlement, which spans from July 30, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2022, the hospital has agreed to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act and has made substantial changes in their timekeeping practices to prevent future violations of federal recordkeeping requirements.

In fiscal year 2024, the Wage and Hour Division concluded 2,376 investigations in healthcare industries. These investigations recovered more than $37 million in back wages for nearly 30,000 workers nationwide.

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. Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions – regardless of immigration status – and 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 Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

SACRAMENTO, CA – A recent series of U.S. Department of Labor investigations shows a substantial increase in the number of care industry employers in California who are exploiting workers by underpaying them deliberately in violation of federal regulations.

These recently completed investigations recovered a combined $735,762 in back wages and damages from five care industry employers whose illegal pay practices deprived 173 workers’ rights to be paid their full-earned wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

“The U.S. Department of Labor will continue to enforce the law and hold unscrupulous employers in the care industry fully accountable for their illegal employment practices,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Cesar Avila in Sacramento, California. “We urge workers who believe they are being denied their legal wages to contact us without fear or hesitation and encourage law-abiding industry employers to denounce competitors who exploit people who provide critically needed care to those in need.”

Specifically, investigators successfully recovered wages in the following cases: 

• Community Anchor Services Inc., a Carmichael home care employer, denied overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The division recovered a combined $252,578 in back wages and damages for 103 employees and assessed $32,343 in penalties.
• Nankil Enterprises Inc., operator of five Bakersfield adult residential care facilities, did not pay overtime wages to workers. In addition to recovering a total of $245,285 in back wages and damages for 39 workers, the division assessed $19,159 in civil money penalties.
• Opoku Residential Care Inc. failed to pay workers at four adult care facilities in Fresno their required overtime wages for hours over 40 in a workweek. The investigation recovered a combined $113,507 in back wages and damages for 20 employees. The division also assessed $9,163 in penalties.
• C. Seisa House, an Auburn residential care facility for people with disabilities, did not pay required overtime pay for hours over 40 in a workweek. The division recovered a total of $63,974 in wages and damages for two workers and assessed $686 in penalties.
• Nora Serrano, a residential care employer for adults with developmental disabilities - operator of Casa de Amor and its three locations in Oroville doing business as Casa de Amor, Highlands View Care Home and Pineville Care Home - failed to combine all hours worked by employees at different facilities, resulting in violations of overtime pay requirements. The division recovered a total of $60,418 in back wages and damages for nine employees and assessed $6,174 in penalties.

These investigations by the department’s Wage and Hour Division in California are part of a wide and ongoing effort to hold violators accountable, raise awareness and prevent violations. To assist employers, the division offers many compliance assistance resources to ensure lawful employment practices.

In the broader healthcare industry, the department’s Wage and Hour Division conducted more than 2,300 investigations and recovered more than $37.8 million in back wages for nearly 30,000 workers nationwide in fiscal year 2024. The division also assessed employers with more than $2.8 million in penalties for violations of federal labor regulations.

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 a complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, workers and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from. The division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

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

Employer:                  

YK Murli LLC operating as Baymont Inn & Suites 

Employer address:    

8220 South Main St.

Helen, GA 30545

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $145,424 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for 95 Georgia housekeeping and front desk workers after its Wage and Hour Division determined the Baymont Inn & Suites failed to combine employees’ work hours at multiple hotel locations when calculating overtime, and paid straight-time wages for hours over 40 in a workweek. 

YK Murli LLC, the employer, also violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by making inappropriate deductions from the workers’ pay by overcharging them for room and board.

Quote: “Failing to pay minimum wage and overtime to workers violates the law and denies workers their rightfully earned wages,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven Salazar in Atlanta. “When a business owner hires workers, they accept an employer’s legal responsibilities and obligations. The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to protecting workers’ rights to full pay and to holding employers accountable when they violate these rights.”

“Employers that operate more than one location cannot treat each location as a separate job. The hours for an employee who works at multiple locations during a workweek must be combined and overtime must be paid for hours over 40 in a workweek,” added Salazar.

Background: YK Murli LLC manages hotels and motels in Georgia. Three locations in Helen were included in this investigation, including Baymont Inn & Suites at 8220 South Main St., Quality Inn at 15 Yonah St., and Country Inn & Suites at 877 Edelweiss Strasse.

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. Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions or concerns – regardless of where they are from – and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.

MINNEAPOLIS – Four Minneapolis restaurants with shared ownership will pay $105,784 in back wages, damages and penalties to resolve violations identified by U.S. Department of Labor, including illegally firing an employee who cooperated with investigators.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division found Boludo Holding Co. and its owners, Jerad Rassmussen and Facundo Defraia, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions in several ways and deprived 51 employees of $44,915 in earned overtime wages at Boludo El 38, Boludo Downtown, Boludo Uptown and Boludo Como, and terminated one worker at its Uptown restaurant after they spoke with investigators.

“Retaliating against workers who engage in protected activities, such as cooperating with a federal investigation, is a blatant violation of the law that we will not tolerate,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Kristin Tout in Minneapolis. “The Department of Labor remains firmly committed to protecting workers against retaliation and ensuring they are paid fully for their hours worked.”

In addition to owing $44,915 in back wages, the restaurants’ operators are also liable for an equal amount in liquidated damages, bringing the total recovery for the affected workers to $89,830. The division also assessed the restaurant group with $15,954 in civil money penalties for child labor and tip retention violations. 

The investigation was part of an initiative by the division to examine common food service industry violations by Midwest employers.

Specifically, division investigators found that the employers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by doing the following:

• Including managers and shift supervisors in a tip pool for servers and others allowed to receive tips, which invalidated the tip pool. 
• Not combining hours employees worked at more than one location, which denied employees overtime wages when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. 
• Allowing at least four workers to routinely use other names and identification numbers to clock-in to avoid paying overtime. 
• Paying two employees straight-time rates for overtime hours, instead of time and one-half their regular rate of pay as required.
• Not maintaining accurate employment records with employee start and stop dates and contact information and allowing individual workers to use others’ names to clock-in. 
• Failing to distribute tips to workers or provide records showing that tips were paid to workers properly. 
• Allowed one 15-year-old to work outside permitted hours.

“Too often, our investigations in the food service industry find employers violating federal overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping regulations, while workers remain unaware of their rights or afraid to question whether their paychecks are accurate,” Tout continued. “This kind of exploitation hurts workers and their families’ ability to earn a living and harms law-abiding restaurant operators by giving violators an unfair and illegal competitive advantage.”

In addition to paying back wages, damages and penalties, Boludo agreed to create a worksheet to process payroll that will have a weekly run to verify hours over 40 in a week and will pay overtime after 40 hours per week and abide by the FLSA in the future. 

In fiscal year 2024, the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $35 million in back wages for more than 27,500 food service industry workers nationwide. In the past five years, the Wage and Hour Division in Minnesota found $2,459,002 in back wages due to 865 food service workers. 

The division’s restaurant compliance toolkit explains wage laws for employers and workers. 

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 Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.