U.S. Department of Labor Investigation Results in Washington State Staffing Company Paying $355,478 to Resolve Wage Violations

SEATTLE, WA – People Tech Group Inc. – a Redmond, Washington, information technology staffing company – will pay 12 employees $309,914 after a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation found the company violated the labor provisions of the H-1B visa program by paying its guest workers far below the required wages, and sometimes not paying them at all. The Department also assessed the company $45,564 in civil penalties for the violations.

WHD investigators found that People Tech Group Inc. paid entry-level wages to H-1B computer analysts and computer programmers who performed the work of much more experienced employees and should have received higher prevailing rates. The company also failed to pay workers for time when the company failed to provide work, as the law requires.

“The intent of the H-1B foreign labor certification program is to help American companies find the highly skilled talent they need when they can prove that a shortage of U.S. workers exists,” said Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Carrie Aguilar in Seattle. “The resolution of this case demonstrates our commitment to safeguard American jobs, level the playing field for law-abiding employers, and ensure no one is being paid less than they are legally owed.”

Individuals can report allegations of H-1B violations by submitting Form WH-4 to the Department’s Wage and Hour Division. For more information about the Department’s foreign labor certification program, visit https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/. For more information on enforcement of the nondiscrimination requirements of the H-1B program, visit https://www.dol.gov/whd/immigration/h1b.htm.