Employer name: Flowers of the Sun Inc., doing business as Ilene's Sunflower, and Ilene Lieberman

Investigation site: 366 President St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11231

Date of Action: Sept. 16, 2015

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Lawsuit

Names of Defendants: Marketing Solutions Group Inc., d/b/a Wise Debt Relief; d/b/a GoWize; d/b/a Consumers Legal Center and Michael S. Gross

Allegations: An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division found Marketing Solutions Group Inc. and its owner, Michael Gross violated the FLSA's overtime and minimum wage provisions.

Employers: Hope Medical Transportation

Sites: 2231 S. 48th Street, Suite 104, Tempe, Arizona, 85282

Investigation findings: Wage and Hour investigators established that Hope Medical Transportation, a non-emergency medical transportation company, did not pay overtime to workers paid on a salary basis when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The employer failed to keep an accurate record of hours worked, and misclassified most of its drivers as independent contractors until January 2014.

Employer name: Exist Inc.

Investigation site: 1650 NW 23 Ave, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311

NEWARK, N.J. — Citing "pervasive skimming from employees' tips and wages," the U.S. Department of Labor has sued a Saddle Brook-based company that operates Houlihan's restaurants in New Jersey and New York and their owner for violations of the minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Employer name: Wei's Hibachi Buffet LLC, doing business as Hibachi Buffet

Investigation site: 13151 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, Florida 33618

Employer name: Southwest Center for the Developmentally Disabled Inc.

Investigation site: 8009 Terry Road, Louisville, Kentucky 40258

CLARK, N.J. — What appeared to be a franchise opportunity for professional cleaners in New Jersey turned out to be an employer scheme to circumvent the law, leaving cleaning workers making less than federal minimum wage.

Employer name: El Potro Inc.

Investigation site: 3396 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30329

HOUSTON — In one of the largest recoveries of overtime wages in recent years for the U.S. Department of Labor, oil and gas service provider, Halliburton, has agreed to pay $18,293,557 to 1,016 employees nationwide. The department's Wage and Hour Division investigated Halliburton as part of an ongoing, multi-year compliance initiative in the oil and gas industry in the Southwest and Northeast.

ATLANTA — An Atlanta restauranteur who is alleged to have cheated his workers out of their wages for years and threatened them if they cooperated with federal officials investigating his business conduct, has agreed to pay 60 employees a total of $329,445 in back wages and liquidated damages for violating their wage rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Employer: Bliss Roofing Inc.

Site: 14430 S.E. 98th Court, Clackamas, Oregon 97015

Employer name: Millennium Natural Health Products Inc.

Investigation site: 10575 NW 37th Terrace, Miami, Florida 33178

Employer name: Fiesta Mexicana LLC, Fiesta Mexicana Restaurante

Investigation site: 957 Town Centre Blvd, Clayton, North Carolina 27520

Type of Action: Family Medical Leave Act Consent Judgment

Names of Defendants: Management Registry, Inc. doing business as Malone Staffing

DALLAS — Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division made sure to keep their eyes on the back door when they showed up at Hiep Thai Markets' stores in Garland and Arlington. The business, a repeat violator of federal wage and hour laws, had sent workers out the rear exit previously to keep them from speaking to agents during two prior investigations. Cheating workers out of wages and frustrating investigators seems to be their business practice.

Employer: Adair County, Oklahoma.

BOSTON — Fruit and vegetable wholesaler Snipped Fresh Produce Inc. had employees cut, weigh and package vegetables for $8 per hour, and many worked more than 40 hours per week for no overtime pay.

Employer Name: RSCR West Virginia Inc., doing business as Community Alternatives WV, is a subsidiary of ResCare Inc. that provides home health care for individuals with disabilities throughout West Virginia.

Investigation Site: 305 Water Street, Stonewood, West Virginia, 26301 and locations in Clarksburg, Keyser, Parkersburg, Buckhannon, Huntington, and Charleston, West Virginia.

SALT LAKE CITY — For most children, fall begins a new school year full of possibilities to learn and prepare for their lives ahead and future jobs. Unfortunately, for hundreds of children in southern Utah and northern Arizona, the season is a time for hard work harvesting pecans by hand for commercial sale.