In a recently posted database, the federal Department of Labor (“DOL”) has allowed the public to see the companies who have been investigated for various violations of the laws the DOL enforces, including overtime violations, minimum wage violations and independent contractor violations.
I quickly scanned the records just for 2014-2015. During that time, more than 35 Amarillo businesses were investigated. Some employed just three or four people. Others employed more than 100. But there are some visible trends in the local DOL investigators’ handiwork.
Local preschools were put under the microscope because they often pay their teachers on salary rather than hourly, resulting in frequent Fair Labor Standards Act violations. Amarillo and Canyon hotels are a favorite target, often because they pay housekeeping personnel by the room, rather than by the hour. Amarillo restaurants were repeated targets because of common violations of the tip wage credit, which allows restaurants to include tips in the calculation of whether their employees are making minimum wage or because the restaurant paid employees on salary. Local construction companies, heating and air companies and plumbers showed up on the investigation list probably because their blue-collar workers were not paid overtime correctly, weren’t paid for their travel time, or were put on salary as supervisors when they regularly performed labor that should have been paid hourly.
Other industries that were affected by the DOL’s local efforts in the last year included home healthcare, landscaping, retail, trucking, medical, automobile service and online companies.
What can you do in your business to assure that you are paying your employees correctly? This is a very complicated area of the law, but here are some quick generalities: Continue reading The DOL’s Database of Investigations on Compensation