Employer:      T.G.H. Management Group Inc., operating as Temple Garden Homes

                        5120 Baldwin Ave.

                        Temple City, CA 91780

 Investigation findings: An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the home care employer, operator of four Temple Garden Homes locations for people with developmental disabilities, again failing to pay required overtime pay rates to 70 employees for all hours over 40 in a workweek in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The division also learned the employer did not keep accurate records as required.

Wages, Damages Recovered:   $72,837 in back wages for 70 workers 

                                                   $72,837 in liquidated damages for 70 workers

                                                   $21,840 in civil money penalties for willful and repeat violations

Quote: “For the third time, Temple Garden Homes willfully violated the labor rights and trust of employees caring for our communities’ most vulnerable people,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Skarleth Kozlo in West Covina, California. “The U.S. Department of Labor will protect workers against repeat offenders and bad employers such as this one.”

Background: Two prior Wage and Hour investigations found the employer committed similar overtime pay violations. These investigations led the division to recover a combined $102,694 in unpaid wages for 50 employees and the assessment of $9,500 in penalties against Temple Garden Homes.

Workers can use the division’s Workers Owed Wages search tool to see if they are owed back wages collected by the division. Employers and workers can contact the Wage and Hour Division for assistance at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. Workers and employers alike can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish. 

This news brief is also availabe in Tagalog. 

Employer:   Crystal Enterprises Inc.

Employer address:    10837 Lanham Severn Road, Glenn Dale, MD 20769

Investigation findings: A U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation determined that Crystal Enterprises Inc. failed to pay the required prevailing wage and health and welfare benefits to employees working at a U.S. Air Force training center dining facility on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, a violation of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act. By doing so, the employer also paid workers lower rates of pay for holidays and sick leave and vacation time used. 

Recoveries: $109,127 in back wages for 55 employees.

Quote: “Government contracts come with stipulations to ensure workers are paid correctly, and employers must adhere to those requirements when bidding on and obtaining those contracts. This includes ensuring the proper job classifications and rates of pay are followed,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Vilma Bell in Orlando, Florida. “These workers provided the critical labor needed to feed service men and women on this military base. They deserve to take home every dollar they earn.”

“Employers with questions about the standards required of them when they enter into federally funded contracts can contact us for help or find government contract compliance assistance information on our website,” Bell added. 

Background: The U.S. Air Force subcontracted Crystal Enterprises Inc. to perform full food services at the training center dining facility on Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. 

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. 

The Service Contract Act requires contractors and subcontractors performing services on prime contracts in excess of $2,500 to pay their workers employed under the contract no less than the local prevailing wages and fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar projects in the area.

Employer:                              Finichel LLC, operating as Finichel Cleaning Services 

Investigation site:                  801 Mohawk Drive

West Columbia, SC 29169

Investigation findings: Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found a South Carolina cleaning services provider misclassified 59 workers as independent contractors, resulting in the company paying employees straight-time rates for all hours worked over 40 instead of the time-and-a-half premium for overtime hours as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The employer also failed to keep records of the amount of time worked by employees as required by law.

Back wages and liquidated damages recovered: $53,044 for 59 workers.                          

Quote: “Misclassifying employees as independent contractors undermines workers’ rights,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel in Columbia, South Carolina. “If workers are misclassified as independent contractors, they don’t get paid overtime or have access to employer-provided health and retirement benefits. They also don’t have access to family and medical leave.”

“If workers or employers need help understanding this, they should reach out to the U.S. Department of Labor or go to our website and get the information they need,” Benefiel added.

Background: Finichel Cleaning Services is a residential and commercial cleaning service that serves the Columbia area and employs approximately 40 workers. 

The FLSA requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, employee misclassification and workers’ rights, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division. 

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

LOUISVILLE, KY – The U.S. Department of Labor encourages employers and others in Kentucky’s highway construction industry to complete a statewide prevailing wage rates survey to help its Wage and Hour Division establish accurate pay and fringe benefits for workers on federally funded and assisted construction projects.

The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts require the department to set the prevailing wage rates that reflect the actual wages and fringe benefits paid to construction workers in the county where the work occurs. 

The survey asks participants to provide information on wages employers paid on highway projects in Kentucky where construction occurred from Nov. 4, 2023, to Feb. 4, 2025. Not limited to federally funded construction projects, survey findings help the division in publishing accurate prevailing wage and fringe benefit rates in areas surveyed. Correct determinations also save contractors time spent requesting additional labor classifications. The department encourages all industry employers and stakeholders to participate.

The division strongly encourages online survey completion by Feb. 4, 2025, and will send notification letters to interested parties and contractors known to the agency with directions on how to access and complete the survey. To request a survey by mail or receive more information, contact the division’s Davis-Bacon Survey Center at (866) 236-2773 or email Davisbaconinfo@dol.gov. 

Learn more about the surveys. 

The Wage and Hour Division will provide two online briefings at no cost to employers and stakeholders to learn more about the survey process and obtain instructions for survey completion on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7, 2024. Register to attend an upcoming briefing.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment and injunction to recover $120,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 177 Oklahoma restaurant workers whose employer deducted time for lunch breaks not taken and failed to pay employees for all hours worked.

The Sept. 18, 2024, judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma against Gregg Hansen - operator of Huddle House franchise locations in Ardmore, Edmond and Oklahoma City - follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found the employer’s pay practices from October 2019 to February 2023 violated federal minimum wage and overtime provisions.

 “Gregg Hansen has deprived hundreds of low-wage workers at his Huddle House franchise locations of their full, hard-earned wages,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Michael Speer in Oklahoma City. “The Wage and Hour Division is determined to stop employers who repeatedly and willfully disregard federal labor regulations and hold them accountable for such blatant violations.”

The division previously cited the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based employer for similar violations at the same Oklahoma locations from 2016 to 2021, and at its locations in Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. The willful and repeated nature of Hansen’s Fair Labor Standards Act violations prompted the department to pursue legal remedies. 

At one point owning nearly 20 locations in nine states, Gregg Hansen has been known as one of the largest Huddle House franchise operators in the nation. The Huddle House brand is owned by Ascent Hospitality Management in Sandy Springs, Georgia, a multi-brand restaurant company with nearly 600 Huddle House and Perkins Restaurant & Bakery locations in the U.S. and Canada. 

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

Lea en Español 

WHITTIER, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $158,868 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages from a Southern California residential care provider that refused to pay overtime to 45 workers, some of whom worked up to 70 hours per week.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found PALS LLC – a residential care provider for individuals with special needs and developmental disabilities – purposely failed to pay caregivers overtime rates when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Investigators discovered some employees worked between 50 and 70 hours per week. Investigators also found the employer, which has locations in Indio and Whittier, failed to keep records of hours worked and rates of pay for each employee.

In addition to the recovery of the unpaid wages and liquidated damages, the division assessed the employer $10,829 in civil money penalties because of the willful nature of the violations.

“We urge all employers in this industry to review their pay practices and respect workers’ right to be paid all of their hard-earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Gayane Aleksanian in West Covina, California. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to protecting care workers and will use all available enforcement tools to hold employers accountable for compliance.” 

Established in 1998, PALS provides adults with developmental disabilities with assistance to live at home independently. Its locations in Indio and Whittier, PALS serves clients of the Regional Center who reside in Los Angeles County and Riverside County. 

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. The division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

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

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Wage and Hour Division will offer online seminars for contractors, contracting agencies, unions, workers and other stakeholders on prevailing wage requirements in fiscal year 2025 for federally funded construction and service contracts.

In the division’s ongoing effort to increase awareness and improve compliance, the division will host two-day seminars with sessions on the Davis-Bacon Act, Service Contract Act and other related topics. Participants can choose among the sessions offered either of the two days. 

Seminars are scheduled on Nov. 13-14, 2024, and from March 18-19, June 25-26 and Sept. 24-25 in 2025. Learn more about related federal wage regulations and check for updates on the seminars.

“Prevailing wage laws empower workers by ensuring federally funded construction and service jobs 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 have significantly increased the number of federal and federally funded projects, and the Wage and Hour Division is committed to ensuring stakeholders understand the labor standards protections critical to these investments.” 

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

For more information about the Davis-Bacon Act, the Service Contract Act and other federal wage laws, please call the division’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

NEW YORK – An administrative law judge has ordered a Pennsylvania-based federal contractor to pay $85,284 in back wages for failing to pay prevailing wages, fringe benefits and overtime pay owed to workers employed on multiple federal construction projects, after an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.

A decision by the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges found that JRW Service Group LLC and its owner, Jason Winters, violated the Davis-Bacon Act by classifying and paying six workers as laborers improperly when they did the work of carpenters, pipefitters and other trades at three worksites for the U.S. General Services Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard. Specifically, the work was performed at federal court buildings in Brooklyn and Central Islip and the U.S. Coast Guard training center in Cape May, New Jersey. The judge also found the company failed to pay workers fringe benefits, as required in federal contracts.

In addition, the judge found the employer did not pay employees the required overtime rates for hours over 40 in a workweek at all three worksites in violation of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act. The case was referred to the department’s Office of the Solicitor when JRW Service Group refused to pay the workers’ back wages. 

“Employers who fail to pay required prevailing wages and fringe benefits because they classify employees improperly cause financial harm to workers on government-funded projects,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jorge Alvarez in New York. “The Wage and Hour Division is committed to ensuring that these employees are made whole using all available enforcement tools.”

The order also debarred the company and its owner from working on future federal and federally funded construction projects for three years.

“This decision and debarment should make clear that the U.S. Department of Labor will pursue all necessary legal actions to ensure that employers are held accountable when they violate federal prevailing wage laws,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey S. Rogoff in New York. 

The division’s New York City District Office conducted the investigation. Trial attorneys Susannah Kroeber, Susan Jacobs and Stacy Goldberg of the regional Office of the Solicitor in New York litigated the case.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division and the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, 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. Workers and employers can 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 Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Date of action:     September 20, 2024 

Type of action:     Complaint

Defendants:     White Noise Coffee I Corp., White Noise Coffee 2 Corp., Milk Under Café Inc., Su Hyung Kim a/k/a Vanesa Kim, and Han Flanagan. 

Allegations:      Following a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation, the department filed suit against a chain of New York City coffee shops operating in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and previously operating in Queens, as White Noise Coffee Co. and the individuals operating the chain. The complaint alleges the employers failed to pay overtime to employees, most notably by not combining hours worked across all locations when employees worked at multiple locations. Instead, workers were paid the same hourly rate even when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The employers also allegedly violated federal recordkeeping requirements by failing to keep and maintain accurate records.

The department’s suit, filed by its Office of the Solicitor, seeks back wages, liquidated damages, and injunctive relief to prevent ongoing and future violations.                                                                

Quotes:     “This suit makes clear all employers will be held accountable when they fail to pay employees their legally earned wages. The department will use every tool available to prevent employers from violating workers’ rights, including litigation,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey S. Rogoff in New York.

“Employers are legally responsible to pay employees for all hours worked and to maintain required records,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jorge Alvarez in New York. “Employers that know and understand the law can easily prevent violations. We encourage employers who may have questions to contact the Wage and Hour Division.”

Court:     U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, NY.

Docket Number:       24-cv-6645

Background:     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 can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions – regardless of immigration status – and 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 Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

ATLANTA – As states across the Southeast address Hurricane Helene’s impacts, the U.S. Department of Labor reminds employers in disaster recovery and their workers that even when disaster strikes, worker protections apply.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division has resources available to help workers and employers understand their rights and responsibilities, including its natural disaster compliance assistance toolkit. The toolkit highlights how to avoid Fair Labor Standards Act violations, focusing on commonly found compliance failures when the department investigates employers engaged in disaster recovery, clean-up and rebuilding efforts.

Concerns highlighted in the toolkit include minimum and overtime wages, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, recordkeeping requirements, prevailing wages and the employment of children in violation of federal child labor laws. The complete toolkit, including many fact sheets available in English and Spanish, is available for download.

In the wake of natural disasters, employers must ensure they protect and maintain accurate records and pay workers when wages are due. Workers are particularly vulnerable during times of crisis, and employers that failed to comply with federal labor laws cause them and their families additional harm.

“Like the communities stricken by hurricanes and other disasters, workers are especially vulnerable after the fact. The U.S. Department of Labor responds quickly to protect workers and ensure they are paid all of their legally earned wages and benefits,” explained Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Juan Coria in Atlanta. “At the same time, we stand ready to provide employers with the information and guidance they need to stay in compliance.”

The division is committed to strong enforcement of workplace protections for disaster recovery workers nationwide, including the states affected by Hurricane Helene. 

Workers and employers with questions or concerns can call the agency’s toll-free helpline confidentially 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 agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish –to ensure hours and pay are accurate.