TAMPA, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $184,139 in back wages and liquidated damages for 56 seasonal guest workers and U.S. workers of a Naples restaurant after finding multiple violations of federal nonimmigrant work program regulations and federal minimum wage and overtime regulations. 

The department’s Wage and Hour Division found Sails Restaurant LLC violated provisions of the H-2B worker visa program by misrepresenting job requirements, including willfully misrepresenting access to high-paid server positions – suggesting unlimited earnings potential when instead no such job existed and promotional positions out of reach for many – and shifting a dining room attendant to another job as a construction laborer. The agency also found the employer:

• Imposed special experience requirements for H-2B workers to qualify for jobs. 
• Failed to list all qualifications in the job order.
• Did not give proper notices related to job termination, denying H-2B workers U.S. work status rights.
• Improperly classified jobs or excluded job tasks on work orders.
• Failed to provide job orders or notify workers of their rights. 
• Did not reimburse visa expenses for H-2B workers, despite being aware of the requirement.

The division assessed $53,536 in civil money penalties.

“Federal law protects nonimmigrant workers employed under the H-2B program, and Sails Restaurant – which has used the program before and is well aware of its requirements – violated those laws,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Nicolas Ratmiroff in Tampa, Florida. “All workers, both U.S. and nonimmigrant workers, must be paid their lawfully earned wages.”

Investigators also found the employer illegally kept the tips of some H-2B and U.S. workers, failed to pay one worker their last paycheck and paid an incorrect overtime rate to tipped employees, all violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Hospitality and food industry employers must understand that regardless of whether the employer is taking a tip credit, employers are prohibited from keeping employee tips or requiring that an employee give their tips to the employer, a supervisor, or manager. The division has numerous resources available on our website and has staff available who are able to answer questions and provide compliance assistance to employers,” Ratmiroff added.

On Feb. 22 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (EDT), the Wage and Hour Division will host a free webinar to educate employers in the hospitality industry of the requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act and H-2B provisions. Information related to requirements under Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Employment and Training Administration Office of Foreign Labor Certification will also be provided. The event is free but registration is required.

The federal H-2B visa program permits U.S. employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants to perform nonagricultural labor or services. The employment must be for a limited, specific period of time, such as a one-time occurrence, seasonal, peak load or intermittent need.

Sails Restaurant is a full-service dining establishment in Naples. The restaurant opened in February 2018 and employs about 60 workers during season.

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). Workers and employers can contact the division confidentially and the department can assist callers in more than 200 languages.

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. Download the agency’s timesheet app, which is free and available in English and Spanish for Android and iOS devices, to track hours and pay.

Employer:      Michigan Multi-King Inc., doing business as Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

                        4897 Rochester Road

                        Troy, MI 48085

Investigation findings: An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found teens working at a Troy Popeyes franchise in violation of hours allowed by the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor standards. 

The investigation disclosed a total of 63 teens – ages 14 and 15 – worked more than 18 hours when school was in session and/or worked past 7 p.m. before June 1 and past 9 p.m. between June 1 and Labor Day. 

Resolution: The division assessed the employer $48,251 in civil money penalties for the violations. 

Quote: “Far too often, we find teens working hours that are not allowed by the Fair Labor Standards Act,” said Wage and Hour District Director Timolin Mitchell in Detroit. “Child labor laws were enacted nearly a century ago to protect children. Employers that hire teen labor must ensure they follow the law while allowing teens to earn valuable work experience.”

Background: The FLSA prohibits 14- and 15-year-old employees from working later than 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day and past 7 p.m. the remainder of the year. Additionally, they cannot work more than 3 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day or more than 18 hours per week. The law also prohibits minors from operating motor vehicles, forklifts and using other hazardous equipment.

To assist employers in avoiding violations and inform young workers and their parents, the division has published its “Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers.” View child labor information for employers, parents, young workers and educators.

In February 2023, the department announced the creation of an Interagency Task Force to Combat Child Labor Exploitation to better align federal efforts to protect children from exploitative situations in the workplace. In fiscal year 2023, department investigators identified child labor violations in 955 cases and assessed employers with more than $8 million in penalties.

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.

BARRIGADA, GUAM – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $547,378 in back wages and liquidated damages for 139 employees of a federal construction contractor in Guam who shortchanged them in violation of federal labor laws.

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined Ian Corporation – operating as Ian Construction – violated multiple federal regulations governing the employment of workers on projects supported by federal funds. The division found the company and owner Jihyung P. Chong violated prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts and the overtime requirements of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay for all hours worked.

The division recovered a total of $295,420 in back wages and $251,957 in liquidated damages for 139 employees. 

In addition to back wages and damages recovered for workers, the employer’s repeated and willful violations led the department to assess $50,000 in penalties. 

This is not the first time the department has investigated Ian Construction. The division previously investigated this federal contractor in 2012, 2016 and 2021 for multiple violations, including overtime, health and welfare benefits, driving time, hours not paid and illegal deductions, resulting in a combined recovery of $10,849 for 44 workers. 

“Just like there are baseline building standards for the construction of homes and community infrastructure, there are also baseline wage standards for the workers who build them. These must be adhered to at all times,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Terence Trotter in Honolulu. “Counting and paying for all hours worked, including mandated breaks of short duration, isn’t just a good idea – it's the law.”

Learn more about the DBRA, the CWHSSA and other laws enforced by the division, as well as a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. The department can speak with callers confidentially 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, now available for Android and iOS devices in English and Spanish, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division.

Read this news release En Español. 

Employer:                              Boatwright Farms LLC

                                                2683 County Road 42

                                                Steele, AL 35987                         

Investigation findings: U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found that a Steele agriculture employer underpaid 106 U.S. workers, giving them a lower rate of pay than legally required, among other violations. The agency found that Boatwright Farms LLC recruited and hired H-2A workers to plant, grow, harvest and prepare tomatoes for shipping. The employer violated regulations of the H-2A program by paying U.S. workers in corresponding jobs a lower hourly rate than offered to H-2A workers. The employer also failed to satisfy the job order’s requirements by not stating actual terms and conditions and did not give workers their wage and hours statements. Additionally, the employer violated the Migrant and Seasonal Workers Protection Act.

Back wages recovered: The division recovered $8,862 in back wages for 106 workers.

Civil money penalties assessed: The division assessed $9,970 in civil money penalties to the employer. 

Quote: “In order to participate in the H-2A program, agricultural employers are required to pay U.S. workers no less than corresponding H-2A workers,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Kenneth Stripling in Birmingham, Alabama. “Our investigation found that this employer failed to adhere to legal standards when employing workers – including failing to tell them the job requirements and location and failing to give them wage stubs and correct pay. Our agency has multiple resources available to help employers understand their obligations under the law.”

Background: The H-2A program enables agricultural employers to hire temporary non-immigrant workers to meet business demands while protecting U.S. workers. The division offers farmworker rights information, compliance assistance resources for employers and an agriculture compliance assistance toolkit to ensure compliance with the law.

Employees and employers can also contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. Workers can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions – regardless of where they are from – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. 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 alike can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS timesheet app – now available in Spanish – for free. 

BOSTON – A restaurant in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood has paid a total of $320,000 in back wages, liquidated damages and punitive damages to 59 current and former employees to resolve violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

The division’s investigation of SOJUba, located at 1265 Boylston St., found the restaurant failed to inform some workers of their cash wage and tip credit, as the FLSA requires. Further, some ineligible workers were included in the tip pool, resulting in other workers not being paid all the tips they had earned. Certain workers were denied the federal minimum wage as a result of the invalidation of the restaurant’s ability to take a tip credit. 

The FLSA permits an employer to take a tip credit toward its minimum wage and overtime obligations for tipped employees if it ensures that the employees receive enough tips from customers and cash wages per workweek to equal at least the minimum wage and overtime compensation required under the FLSA. 

Investigators also found that SOJUba did not pay at least the minimum wage to front-of-the-house workers for every hour worked, pay employees proper overtime wages for all hours worked over 40 in a work week or maintain accurate payroll records. During the division’s investigation, the business told workers what to say to investigators, in violation of the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision.

The investigation has resulted in SOJUba paying the affected workers $147,500 in back wages and $147,500 in liquidated damages, plus $25,000 in punitive damages for the retaliation. The back wages cover between Aug. 17, 2019 and Aug. 13, 2022. SOJUba has also paid $40,000 in civil money penalties to the U.S. Department of Labor because of the wage violations’ willful nature.

“The Fair Labor Standards Act clearly spells out an employer’s responsibilities to pay proper minimum wage and overtime rates to employees and forbids employers from attempting to coerce workers or tell them to not participate in a Wage and Hour Division investigation,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Carlos Matos in Boston. “When employers deliberately attempt to ignore the law’s requirements, the U.S. Department of Labor will actively pursue damages and penalties in addition to recouping back wages for employees hurt by such behavior.”

Learn more about how the Wage and Hour Division protects workers against retaliation. 

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 immigration status. The department 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 in English or Spanish to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Participants:                          U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division

                                                Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Partnership description:      A Memorandum of Understanding between the Wage and Hour Division and the commonwealth’s Office of the Comptroller continues their collaborative partnership to communicate and cooperate, effectively and efficiently, on areas of common interest to promote compliance with U.S. and the commonwealth’s laws of common concern among the regulated community in Puerto Rico. Activities include sharing jurisdictional information on topics related to both agencies, providing proper support in referrals and conducting joint investigations and cross training of both agencies’ personnel.          

View the agreement between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 

Quote:                                     “This agreement continues the mutual efforts of the Wage and Hour Division and the Office of the Comptroller to educate workers and employers and ensure adherence to federal and territorial laws in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,” said Wage and Hour Division Director José R. Vázquez in Guaynabo.

Duration:                               The agreement is effective until Nov. 23, 2028.

Background:                          The Wage and Hour Division enforces the federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act as well as the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Davis Bacon Act, the Service Contract 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.                            

The Office of the Comptroller has the ministerial duty to audit all revenues, accounts, and disbursements of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies and instrumentalities and its municipalities, to determine whether they have been made in accordance with commonwealth 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, or call the Caribbean District Office at 787-775-1947. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions regardless of where they are from. The department can speak with callers confidentially 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 — also available in Spanish — to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

This press release is also available in Spanish.

Who:               U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division          

What:             Labor law webinar for Hospitality Worker Appreciation Day 

When:             Feb. 22, 2024, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST   

Where:           Online webinar. The event is free, but registration is required. 

Background: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division – in coordination with the Women’s Bureau, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Agency and the Office of Foreign Labor Certification – will mark Hospitality Worker Appreciation Day by offering a webinar on federal regulations governing workers’ wages and benefits and employers’ responsibilities in hotels, motels, restaurants and staffing agencies in the Southeast. 

This multi-agency event will provide information on the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions as well as requirements under H-2B visa program. The webinar will also cover the employment relationship as it applies to staffing agencies and clients. Participants will also receive compliance information relevant to laws enforced by the EEOC and OSHA. In fiscal year 2023, the Wage and Hour Division identified violations in 92 percent of more than 1,500 investigations in the hospitality industry and recovered more than $9.3 million in back wages for more than 8,900 workers. The agency also assessed more than $1.3 million in civil money penalties to employers found in violation of the law. 

Quote: “Hospitality workers provide critical labor that allows industry employers to be profitable and enables guests to enjoy their accommodations,” said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Juan Coria in Atlanta. “We’ve designed this webinar to meet the hospitality industry’s unique needs in the hope that we can educate employers – including staffing agencies – on their legal responsibilities and help workers understand how we safeguard their wages and benefits.”

Employer name:  Ole Jose Grill & Cantina LLC, operating as Ole, Jose Grill & Cantina

Employer address: 564 River Drive Ave., Pineville, West Virginia 24784

Investigation findings:  Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act when the employer improperly paid tipped employees time and one-half their cash wage for hours over 40 in a workweek – instead of time and one-half the applicable minimum wage.  Additionally, the employer misclassified one tipped employee as an independent contractor, paid kitchen staff a flat rate for all hours worked with no overtime premium paid and failed to keep hours worked records for the back of house kitchen employees.

Back wages recovered: $83,632 to 17 employees

Liquidated damages paid: $83,632

Quote: “Many restaurant workers struggle to make ends meet and they deserve to be paid for all hours worked. Employers who shortchange their employees will be held accountable,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director John DuMont in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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). 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.

HOUSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $460,857 in back wages and damages after federal investigators found a Houston supermarket failed to pay 104 workers overtime wages.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Y. S. Lee Company Inc. – operating as Guanajuato Supermarket – paid its employees straight time rates instead of time-and-one-half their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Investigators found the supermarket, which includes a restaurant, meat market and bread store, also failed to keep accurate pay records as required by federal law. 

“Employers have a legal obligation to pay workers correctly for all the hours they work, including time-and-one-half their regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek. When they fail to do so, they violate the law and face having to pay back wages and liquidated damages to their employees,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Nicole Sellers in Houston. “We are committed to ensuring essential protections for workers and providing clear and confidential compliance assistance to any employee or employer with questions.”

The Wage and Hour Division enforces laws governing pay practices and other labor standards, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, and determines if employers have misclassified employees as independent contractors and denied them critical benefits and worker protections. 

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 contact the division confidentially at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE (487-9243). The division protects workers regardless of immigration status and can communicate with workers in more than 200 languages.

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

Lea en Español  

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Wage and Hour Division will offer online seminars throughout 2024 for contracting agencies, contractors, unions, workers and other stakeholders on the requirements for paying prevailing wages on federally funded construction and service contracts.

Part of the division’s effort to increase awareness and improve compliance, each day-long seminar will include sessions on the Davis-Bacon Act, Service Contract Act and other related topics. Participants can choose among the sessions offered throughout the day. 

The seminars are scheduled for Feb. 27, May 15 and Aug. 29. Any updates will be posted on the prevailing wage seminar webpage, which includes a video library covering additional topics.

“Prevailing wage laws empower workers by ensuring that construction and service jobs on federally funded projects across the country are good jobs with fair wages and benefits,” said Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “The Biden-Harris administration’s historic investments in our nation’s infrastructure provide the Wage and Hour Division an opportunity to educate employers as they compete for new federal contract opportunities that put skilled employees to work in communities across America.” 

While seminar attendance is free, registration is required. Additional information, including links to the sessions for each date, will be provided to participants after registration.