TRAVERSE CITY, MI – The H-2B Visa program exists to help supply employers with temporary foreign workers they need while protecting U.S. workers’ access to the same jobs. The program does not permit employers to misuse the program and not pay foreign and U.S. workers the same legally required wages.

GAINESVILLE, VA – For 17-year-old drivers, the Centers for Disease Control cites inexperience, distracted driving, and night and weekend driving as factors that place them among those with the highest risk for motor vehicle crashes. Putting drivers this age behind the wheel to make “as soon as possible” deliveries also violates federal child labor laws, a fact ignored by the operators of a Virginia pizza restaurant.  

DELAWARE, OH – Creative Foundations Inc. has paid $327,848 in back wages to 223 employees after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the Delaware-based employer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and child labor requirements. The department assessed $671 in civil money penalties for the employer’s child labor violations.

SMITHFIELD, NC – Temporary foreign workers are essential contributors to America’s agricultural workforce, and laws enforced by several federal departments, including the U.S. Department of Labor, govern their hiring, wages and working conditions.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced proposals to rescind two final rules that would significantly weaken protections afforded to American workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

TAMPA, FL – A Tampa restaurant enterprise has paid $102,894 in back wages to 11 workers after a federal investigation found the employer illegally denied them overtime pay.

ORLANDO, FL – An Orlando landscaping employer will pay $48,978 in back wages to 39 workers after a federal investigation found the employer paid employees illegally for the hours that they worked.

ATLANTA - La División de Horas y Salarios del Departamento de Trabajo de los EE. UU. está llevando a cabo una iniciativa de educación y cumplimiento de las leyes laborales federales en el sector agrícola del sureste de los Estados Unidos de América. Además de actividades relacionadas con el cumplimiento de las leyes, la iniciativa ofrece ayuda a empleadores respecto de este tema e instruye a trabajadores y a otras partes interesadas.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is currently engaged in an education and enforcement initiative to increase compliance with federal labor laws in the Southeast’s agricultural industry. In addition to enforcement activity, the initiative provides compliance assistance to employers and educates workers and other stakeholders.

MANCHESTER, NH – Two Nashua restaurants learned that paying flat salaries to its workers doesn’t waive their responsibility to pay overtime when those employees work more than 40 hours in a workweek. Doing so violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, and resulted in the back wages found due in a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation.

SANIBEL, FL –Restaurant workers such as servers and bartenders depend on tips to supplement their low hourly wages, so when a Sanibel Island eatery required its workers to contribute to an unlawful tip pool, the restaurant made it even harder for them to make ends meet.

An investigation of Island Cow Inc. by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered $222,432 in back wages for 48 workers.

OCALA, FL – A consent order issued by an administrative law judge in the U.S. Department of Labor has allowed the department’s Wage and Hour Division to recover $81,139 in back wages for 29 foreign workers brought to Florida for employment under the federal H-2B guest worker visa program.

PASCAGOULA, MS – A Pascagoula, Mississippi, staffing agency for the marine and shipbuilding industries has paid $46,372 in back wages to 45 employees to resolve overtime and recordkeeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act found in a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation.

PHILADELPHIA – Every day, seniors and people with disabilities rely on home health care workers for vital services. While the demand for these skilled employees is high, wages remain low. So when a Philadelphia home health care agency failed to pay millions in overtime wages to its workers, the impact hit more than 450 workers hard as they struggled to make ends meet.

BOISE, ID – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is asking businesses in Idaho’s building and heavy construction industries to complete a survey to help the agency establish prevailing wage rates, as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. Not limited to federally funded construction projects, the survey includes active building and heavy construction projects in all metropolitan counties in Idaho between Jan.

CHICAGO – Kitchen staff worked countless hours making authentic dishes like Banh Mi and Pho for a fixed salary while co-workers serving customers seeking Vietnamese cuisine at a popular Chicago restaurant often worked for tips only.

PITTSBURGH – A U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh has issued a consent order requiring the payment of more than $1.6 million in back wages and damages to 546 home health aides.

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles World Airports – owner and operator of Los Angeles International and Van Nuys airports – has made sweeping changes to its employee medical leave request system to address failures that led to long delays, invalid disciplinary personnel actions and violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act found in a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – While a North Charleston catering facility relied on the hard work of its hourly workers to make their guests’ weddings and special events memorable, a recent U.S. Department of Labor investigation found 18 workers had less to celebrate when their employer failed to pay them $22,970 in overtime they had earned.

BALTIMORE, MD – As many restaurant servers’ base wage is well below $7.25 per hour, they depend on customers’ appreciation of their service to make ends meet. When an employer keeps a portion of the tips they earned or fails to pay them for all the hours they worked, paying their own bills becomes a very tall order.