News Brief
US Department of Labor recovers $60K in back wages for nurses shortchanged by Perry County Hospital’s timekeeping issues
Employer: Perry County Hospital, Tell City, Indiana
Investigation findings: U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators recovered $60,254 in overtime back wages for 107 nurses at Perry County Hospital. Investigators determined the hospital violated the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations when the facility:
- Deducted 30-minute meal breaks after six hours worked, without verifying if employees used meal breaks.
- Failed to include incentive pay – such as shift, longevity and referral bonus – when calculating an employees’ hourly rate of pay for overtime purposes.
- Incorrectly recorded hours worked within a pay period, which denied some employees overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek.
Back Wages Recovered and Liquidated Damages: $60,254 in overtime back wages for 107 nurses.
Quote: “While automated time clocks programmed to make common payroll deductions like meal breaks can be a timesaver for managers, they can cause errors in employees’ timekeeping, especially in an industry like healthcare where urgent matters often force nurses and other workers to work through breaks,” explained Acting Wage and Hour Division District Director Fernando Hernandez in Indianapolis. “Employers who use such automated devices must verify that employees used their meal breaks and make sure pay rates and hours are accurate and that they paid employees their full wages.”
Background: The Wage and Hour Division offers resources on wages rules for healthcare workers.
Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.
Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – also available in Spanish –to ensure hours and pay are accurate.
As of December 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the healthcare and social services industry has nearly 2 million job openings.
