Pontiac, Michigan, grocer will pay $95K in overtime back wages to 14 workers after US Department of Labor investigation

PONTIAC, MI – While its shelves stocked with imported Hispanic food favorites make Pontiac’s Carnival Market a destination grocery for Detroit metro shoppers, a federal investigation has found the employer shortchanged its cashiers, bakers and dishwashers of wages they legally earned.

Following a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation, Carnival Market will pay $95,618 in overtime back wages to 14 employees. The division found the grocer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by:

• Failing to pay employees overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Instead, the employer paid workers straight time rates, in unrecorded cash, for their overtime hours;
• Failing to record cash payments made to workers; and
• Failing to maintain accurate records of the number of hours employees worked.

“Grocery workers are among the front-line, essential workers who have kept this country moving forward, and deserve to be paid every cent of their hard-earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Timolin Mitchell in Detroit. “Unfortunately, violations like these are all too common in the grocery industry. Our enforcement actions protect workers, level the playing field for employers, and raise awareness of federal labor laws and protections among employers, workers, community organizations and others.”

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact its toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at www.dol.gov/agencies/whd, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.