Alabama Installation Company to Pay $134,097 to 22 Employees After U.S. Department of Labor Investigation Finds Overtime Violations

ELBERTA, AL – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Paradise Granite LLC – a countertop installation company based in Elberta, Alabama – will pay $134,097 in back wages and liquidated damages to 22 employees for violating overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Department also assessed the company a civil penalty of $8,097.

WHD investigators determined that Paradise Granite LLC paid straight time rates to hourly employees, rather than paying time-and-one-half for overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The employer paid other workers flat salaries, without regard to the number of hours they had worked. This practice created overtime violations when those employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but were not paid overtime. Paradise Granite also failed to record the number of hours worked by some employees. A previous investigation of another related business owned by this same employer also disclosed overtime violations.

“Employers who fail to comply with federal labor laws and short their workers’ pay gain an unfair advantage over employers who play by the rules,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Kenneth Stripling, in Birmingham. “We will continue to provide tools to employers that help them understand their obligations, and to enforce these laws to level the playing field for employers.”

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.