Bay Area Compliance Audit Company to Pay Employees $54,121 After U.S. Department of Labor Finds Overtime Violations

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A Bay Area employer providing environmental, labor and social responsibility audits will pay $54,121 in back wages to 10 employees and an additional $5,640 in penalties after a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation found the company violated overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

 WHD investigators found Elevate U.S. Limited LLC erroneously considered its lead auditors to be exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements and paid them flat salaries without regard to the number of hours that they worked. This practice resulted in violations when those employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but were not paid overtime. The employer also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements when it failed to record the total number of hours employees actually worked.

 “Employers are required to pay their employees the wages they have legally earned for all the hours that they work,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Susana Blanco in San Jose, California. “Simply paying employees a salary does not necessarily mean they are not entitled to overtime. The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to educating employers and improving compliance with federal wage laws to ensure workers receive the wages they have earned and that employers compete on a level playing field.”

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/agencies/whd.

WHD’s mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation’s workforce. WHD enforces federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD also enforces the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act and a number of employment standards and worker protections as provided in several immigration related statutes. Additionally, WHD administers and enforces the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act and other statutes applicable to federal contracts for construction and for the provision of goods and services.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.