Franchisee Pays $122,523 to 245 Restaurant Employees to Resolve Federal Wage and Hour Violations at Three Georgia Locations

ATLANTA, GA – RREMC Restaurant LLC – parent company of Denny's restaurants in Byron, Columbus, and Norcross, Georgia – has paid $122,523 in back wages and liquidated damages to 245 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation determined the employer violated minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found that RREMC Restaurant LLC falsely increased reported tip amounts for servers and deleted or reduced time from their daily hours. By doing so, the employer violated FLSA minimum wage requirements when the employees' actual hourly earnings fell below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The employer's actions led to overtime violations when they deducted or erased employees' hours and then failed to pay overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. WHD also determined the restaurants violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements when they failed to keep accurate records of employees' hours.

"Employers must ensure that their employees receive the wages they have legally earned for all the hours they have worked," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Eric Williams, in Atlanta. "We are determined to ensure that employers who fail to comply with the law do not gain an unfair advantage over those who do."

The Department offers numerous resources to ensure employers have the tools they need to understand their responsibilities and to comply with federal law, such as online videos, confidential calls, or in-person visits to local WHD offices.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd.