TAMPA, FL – Home healthcare aides are among the nation’s lowest wage earners. Many depend on receiving every dollar they’ve earned, including overtime wages, so when their employer fails to comply with federal labor laws and shorts their pay, it hits their wallets particularly hard.  

A U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation of All Support Services LLC, a Tampa-area home healthcare provider, found that the employer failed to pay workers overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, instead paying workers at straight time rates for all the hours that they worked. The employer also failed to pay workers for time spent traveling between clients’ homes, or for some of the time they spent on duty while their clients slept. 

The division cited All Support Services for these violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and has recovered $45,770 in back wages for 38 workers. 

“The Fair Labor Standards Act is very clear when it comes to employers’ obligations to their workers and their employees’ rights to receive earned wages for all the hours they work,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Nicolas Ratmiroff in Tampa, Florida. “Failing to pay workers as the law requires is illegal, and especially unacceptable amid a pandemic when these workers put their own safety at risk to serve the needs of our communities’ most vulnerable citizens.”

Based in Tampa, All Support Services LLC provides supported living coaches, supported employment, personal support, in-home companions and personal live-in support services to area residents.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, and use its search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

WEST COVINA, CA – An Ontario logistics provider of warehousing and distribution services for the home fashion and apparel industry told workers to record only 8 hours of labor each day regardless of how many hours they actually worked – a finding of the U.S. Department of Labor affirmed by a federal court in California recently.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division, has ordered Global One Logistics to pay a total of $120,000 in overtime back wages and liquidated damages to 388 employees, and an additional $2,000 penalty assessed by the department’s Wage and Hour Division to address the employer’s willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Investigators found the employer willfully failed to pay employees overtime at time-and-one-half their regular rates of pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week. In addition to requiring employees to falsify the number of hours they worked each day, the employer also paid for the unrecorded hours in cash, at workers’ straight-time rates.

“Employers who purposefully manipulate payroll records in an attempt to avoid their legal obligations will be held accountable by the U.S. Department of Labor,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Rafael Valles in West Covina, California. “Shortchanging employees hurts workers and their families, and gives employers who cheat an unfair competitive advantage over employers who abide by the law. The outcome of this investigation serves as a reminder to all employers to review their pay practices to ensure they comply with the law, and as a reminder to workers that they have the right to be paid for all of the hours that they work.”

In addition to paying back wages and damages, the court ordered Global One Logistics to implement a reliable timekeeping system that allows each employee to record his or her daily start and stop times accurately. The order also instructed the employer to not alter or manipulate time or payroll records to reduce the number of hours actually worked and not to encourage or pressure workers to under report hours worked.

The Wage and Hour Division protects workers regardless of immigration status, and can communicate with workers in more than 200 languages. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact its 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.

Read this news release En Español.

WARREN, MI – The Davis Bacon and Related Acts require contractors on federally funded projects to pay all laborers on site prevailing wage rates and benefits, and mandates that prime contractors make sure their subcontractors follow the rules.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Premier Office Installations of Flat Rock, a subcontractor installing furniture as part of a renovation project at the U.S. Army Contracting Command-Detroit Arsenal in Warren, failed to pay workers the prevailing wages and fringe benefits required for carpenters. In turn, the project’s prime contractor – Ambica JV LLC of Livonia – paid the $82,700 in back wages due to 19 employees after the department found the prime contractor failed to advise its subcontractor of the DBRA requirements.

“This investigation demonstrates the department’s commitment to ensuring that employees are paid the wages they have rightfully earned and to leveling the playing field among all employers who do business with the government,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Timolin Mitchell in Detroit. “Employers awarded federal contracts are aware of these requirements and must evaluate their pay practices to ensure all employees on the job site receive the wages and benefits they are due.”

Contractors and subcontractors on federally funded projects are required to pay covered workers weekly and submit weekly certified payroll records to the federal agency contracting the work. They are also required to post the Davis-Bacon poster (WH-1321) on the job site so that workers are aware of their protections.

For more information about the DBRA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’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.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM - The U.S. Department of Labor, in partnership with El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos and NM Comunidades En Acción Y De Féé), the New Mexico Workforce Solutions and Somos Un Pueblo Unido will present a Spanish-language webinar on the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division’s Essential Workers ‒ Essential Protections initiative on May 26 at 5 p.m. MT.

Grocery, healthcare, delivery service, retail, agricultural and other workers in essential industries have risked their health and that of their families in pursuit of a needed paycheck. The Wage and Hour Division is committed to ensuring that these and all workers receive the workplace protections the law provides.

Rapid changes in the workplace have recently left workers, their advocates and employers with many questions about wages, hours worked and time off for workers or their family members dealing with serious illness. The Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act provide protections for workers that may be more crucial now than ever before.

To address these concerns, the division is offering Spanish-language training on these critical workplace protections through the Essential Workers ‒ Essential Protections initiative.

Attendance is free, but participants must register for the seminar in advance.

For questions, please contact Patricia Chavez at the Wage and Hour Division’s office at (505) 248-2674 or email Chavez.patricia@dol.gov.

Lea En Español

NASHVILLE, TN – A federal contractor that provides transportation and parking valet service for veterans attending medical appointments has paid $158,068 in back wages to 66 workers to resolve violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act found in a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation.

The investigation found Community Pastor Care, LLC doing business as CPC Medical Transportation, violated the Service Contract Act, which governs prevailing wages on federally funded contracts. The investigation determined that the Columbia, South Carolina, company failed to pay employees required prevailing wages, and health and welfare benefits for work they performed under the contract. Investigators also found the contractor failed to pay overtime when employees worked more than 40 hours per week, in violation of the FLSA. The workers performed services for Veterans Affairs medical centers in Memphis and Mountain Home.

“Prevailing wage laws protect workers and level the playing field for all contractors who do business with the government,” said Acting Wage and Hour Division District Director Kenneth Stripling in Nashville, Tennessee. “Employers who fail to pay employees all of the wages they legally earned shortchange their workers and gain an unfair competitive advantage over employers who abide by the law.”

The division 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, fact sheets and an online regulation library. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’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.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an 18-month delay in the effective date of the final rule, “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States.”

Published in January 2021, the final rule affects employers seeking to employ foreign workers on a permanent or temporary basis through certain immigrant visas or through H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 non-immigrant visas.  The final rule will now go into effect on Nov. 14, 2022. 

The delay will provide the department with sufficient time to consider the final rule’s legal and policy issues thoroughly, and to review the public comments received in response to a Request for Information published on April 2, 2021. The RFI seeks information about potential sources and methods for determining prevailing wage levels.

The delay will also give agency officials sufficient time to compute and validate prevailing wage data covering specific occupations and geographic areas, complete necessary system modifications and conduct public outreach. This follows an initial 60-day delay. The department based this action on a Jan. 20, 2021, White House memo.

Read the final rule finalizing the delay, now available online for public inspection. It was published in the Federal Register today.

Hallandale, FL – Construction industry employers owe it to their workers to pay them their hard-earned wages on time for their long hours and often demanding, physical labor.

A Hallandale-based restoration firm has learned that failing to meet these obligations doesn’t pay.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered $533,778 in back wages for 325 employees of Oceanside Labor & Demolition LLC, a contractor offering disaster and fire restoration work nationwide. Investigators found the employer failed to make payroll for three pay periods, leaving employees with no wages over several workweeks. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay workers at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and overtime at one-and-one-half times their hourly rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

“Employers must pay their employees all of the wages they have earned for all of the hours they worked, and do so no later than their regularly scheduled payday,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel Cronin in Miami, Florida. “These essential workers, among those that have kept us moving forward throughout this global pandemic, deserve to be paid fully and on time. The Wage and Hour Division remains committed to ensuring that workers receive every penny they have earned, and that employers compete on a level playing field.”

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the agency, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). 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.

LEHIGH ACRES, FL – Eighty-one workers harvesting squash and zucchini at a Homestead farm discovered the contractor who hired them was not going to provide meals or kitchen facilities. Workers were forced to spend more on meals than $12.46 per day, the amount promised by the contractor, a violation of the federal H-2A guest worker visa program.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division of Pride Harvesting LLC – a Lehigh Acres-based farm labor employer – led to the recovery of $21,748 in back wages for the workers. The division also assessed a $1,412 civil penalty.

“Agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable essential workers our laws protect,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel Cronin in Miami. “The Wage and Hour Division remains committed to enforcing those protections and ensuring that employers provide workers the wages, meals and housing promised in the job offer. Employers who fail to comply are subject to payment of back wages, civil penalties and potential debarment from program participation. We offer numerous online resources to help businesses comply with the requirements of the law, and we encourage employers to call us directly and confidentially with any questions they may have.”

The H-2A program helps American employers hire temporary foreign workers to fill much-needed roles when sufficient numbers of able, willing and qualified U.S. workers are not available to perform the jobs.

Pride Harvesting LLC provides H-2A workers to harvest squash and zucchini for Torbert Farms Inc. in Homestead.

The division offers multiple compliance assistance resources, including an agriculture compliance assistance toolkit, to provide employers the information they need to comply with the law. For more information about MSPA, H-2A and other laws enforced by the division, contact its 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.

CRYSTAL RIVER, FL – Few would argue with the fact that home healthcare nurses – who serve the needs of our communities and their most vulnerable – deserve all the wages they legally earn. When employers fail to pay workers like these correctly, the U.S. Department of Labor responds.

Following an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division, Florida Caregivers Inc. – a Crystal River business – has paid $33,626 in back wages to 22 workers to resolve violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The division found the employer misclassified caregivers as independent contractors rather than employees. As a result, Florida Caregivers failed to pay overtime when these employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.

“These essential workers deserve to take home every penny of their hard-earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Nicolas Ratmiroff in Tampa, Florida. “Employers who arbitrarily decide to treat employees as independent contractors hurt not only the affected workers, but also other employers who pay their employees as the law requires. We remain committed to ensuring essential protections for workers, and to providing clear, confidential compliance assistance to any worker or employer with questions.”

Employees of Florida Caregivers Inc. provide 24-hour nursing care, or assistance with daily living needs including bathing and grooming, medication reminders, housekeeping, as well as transportation to doctors’ appointments and errands.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’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.

FORT MYERS, FL – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered more than $36,000 in back wages for workers at a grocery store that denied them overtime pay required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

At Pica Italian Deli Inc. – operating as Mario’s Italian Meat Market – investigators found the employer paid two deli clerks, one cook and one stocker, flat salaries regardless of the number of hours they worked each workweek. By doing so, the employer violated FLSA overtime requirements when these employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, yet they failed to pay them overtime. As a result, the division recovered $36,279 in overtime back wages for the four workers. The employer also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements by failing to track the number of hours these employees worked each workweek.

“Some employers believe incorrectly that simply paying an employee a flat salary automatically means they don’t have to pay those workers overtime. That is not true,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Nicolas Ratmiroff in Tampa, Florida. “Any exemptions from the law’s overtime provisions require that very specific criteria be met. We hope this investigation’s outcome encourages other employers to review their own pay practices to ensure they avoid similar violations and comply with the law.”

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’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.