US Department of Labor recovers $39K for 31 employees of Franklin area lawn care company

FRANKLIN, TN – A Franklin lawn care company has paid $39,373 in back wages to 31 workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor that found the employer violated the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Lawnwise Inc. paid its workers a fixed salary plus commissions, regardless of the number of hours they worked each workweek. By doing so, the employer violated FLSA overtime requirements when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but the employer failed to pay them overtime. The division also found the employer paid one employee commission only during the worker’s last week with the company, resulting in a minimum wage violation, and violated recordkeeping requirements by failing to record the number of hours employees worked.

“Employers must pay workers all of the wages they have legally earned, including overtime,” said Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Kenneth Striping in Nashville, Tennessee. “Other employers in this industry should use this investigation as an opportunity to review their own pay practices to ensure they comply with the law. The Wage and Hour Division invites anyone with questions about workplace rights or responsibilities to call us, confidentially, to speak with a trained professional to get their questions answered.”

Unless a specific exemption applies, workers paid on a salary basis, by the hour, on a piece rate, on a day rate, or by other methods are entitled to overtime for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek.

Based in Franklin, Lawnwise Inc. is a locally owned-and-operated company providing lawn care, pest control and other landscaping services in Nashville and the surrounding area.  

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’s 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.