Jaws Shirts & Gift shop owes $60K in back wages, damages to 38 workers at its Tennessee locations, US Labor Department finds

Employer name: Today’s Generation LLC, doing business as Jaws Shirts & Gifts

Investigation site: 3535 Parkway, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Investigation findings: Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Knoxville Area Office, found that Jaws Shirts & Gifts violated the overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Specifically, the employer paid workers straight time without regard to the number of hours they worked and failed to pay them time and a half when they worked over 40 hours in a workweek. The employer operates three locations and did not combine the hours employees worked at each location to determine the total hours worked. Some employees worked as many as 80 hours in a workweek at different locations and were paid straight time. Additionally, the employer did not keep legally required records of all hours worked by employees.

Resolution: Today’s Generation has agreed to comply with the FLSA, and pay 38 employees back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages totaling $60,394.

Quote: “Employers cannot choose to pay employees less than what they are legally required because it is cheaper for them; they must comply with the law. Workers deserve to be paid fairly for the work they do,” said Nettie Lewis, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Nashville. “The Wage and Hour Division offers compliance assistance to help employers, because ignorance of the law is not an excuse. We strongly encourage workers who may be in similar situations, where their employer is not paying overtime after 40 hours of work in a workweek, to reach out to us.”  

Information: The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers are prohibited from retaliating against workers who exercise their rights under the law.

For more information about the FLSA and wage laws or to file a complaint, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243); or visit the Knoxville Area Office at 710 Locust St., Room 101, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902 or http://www.dol.gov/whd.