US Department of Labor recovers $135K in back wages, damages for 77 employees denied overtime by Ware Landscaping

Employers:    Ware Landscaping, Naperville, Illinois

                             Michael Ware, owner

Action:           U.S. Department of Labor complaint and consent judgment filing

Court:             U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Court action: The department has obtained a consent judgment in federal court requiring Ware Landscaping and its owner to pay $67,500 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for 77 employees, after an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer violated the Fair Labor Standard Act’s overtime and minimum wage provisions. 

Investigators determined the Naperville landscaping and snow removal company and owner Michael Ware paid its landscaping employees a flat weekly salary, though they were not exempt from the minimum wage or overtime provisions of the FLSA. As a result, the employer did not pay employees one and one-half their hourly rate for hours over 40 in a workweek and failed to pay at least one employee less than minimum wage for all hours worked. 

Quote: “Since 1938, federal law has required overtime wages be paid for over 40 hours worked in a workweek. Employers are responsible for knowing and complying with federal wage laws,” said Wage and Hour District Director Tom Gauza in Chicago. “Workers and employers with questions on wage laws should contact the department for compliance assistance.”

“The U.S. Department of Labor will continue to take legal action to protect workers’ rights to their earned wages and hold employers accountable for violating the law,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago.

Background: Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, 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.

United States Department of Labor v. Ware Landscaping 

Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-02293