After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, Dallas-based Paradise Detail Ltd. is to pay 82 current and former detail and car wash employees $229,475 in back wages.
According to the investigation, Paradise Detail violated the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime and minimum wage provisions.
"This company benefited by not paying employees all the wages they were entitled to receive," says Cynthia Watson, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in the Southwest. "Car wash employees are among the most vulnerable employees in the work force. The Labor Department remains committed to protecting the rights and wages of these workers and to leveling the playing field for employers who play by the rules. The back wages paid in this case should serve as a warning to other employers to ensure that they are paying their employees in compliance with the laws."
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Paradise Details timekeeping system rounded time worked to favor the employer; thus, employees were paid for fewer hours than they worked, the investigation found. These miscalculations resulted in minimum wage violations as pay dropped under the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Paradise Details also did not pay employees overtime at time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked after 40 in a workweek.
In the future, Paradise Detail has agreed to comply with the FLSA and pay in full the back wages due.
Under FLSA, covered, nonexempt employees be paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or more for every hour worked along with time and one-half their regular rates. This includes commissions, bonuses and incentive pay for hours worked past 40 per week. Hours worked typically encompasses all time an employee must be on duty or on the employer's property or any other prescribed place of work, starting during the first principal work activity and ending during the last principal activity of the workday. FLSA also mandates that accurate records of employees' wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.
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