Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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LOUISVILLE, KY -- The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that Rafferty’s Inc., has agreed to pay 290 servers at three of its restaurants $76,619 in back wages and liquidated damages after the department filed suit in U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky, alleging the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that employees receive the wages they have earned,” said Jim Rogers, Wage and Hour’s Louisville district director. “Employees received liquidated damages because of the employer’s failure to comply with the FLSA.”

The suit, which resulted from investigations by the department’s Wage and Hour Division, alleged that between December 2001 and April 2002, Rafferty’s failed to properly compensate restaurant servers in Bowling Green, Ky., Nashville, Tenn., and Evansville, Ind. Specifically, the suit charged that the company failed to compensate servers for required pre-shift meetings and for time spent waiting for first customers to arrive.

The investigations also found that between December 2001 and December 2002, restaurant managers deducted uniform laundering costs from “tipped” employees’ wages, causing them to be paid less than the required “tipped-credit” minimum wage rate of $2.13 per hour.

The consent order, signed by U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell, required the company to pay back wages and liquidated damages due to the 290 employees who worked at the three restaurants and to provide FLSA training to management employees at its 24 restaurants. The order also prohibits future violations of the Act.

The law requires that covered workers be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, or $2.13 an hour for employees who qualify for the tipped credit rate. It also requires that workers are paid one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a single work week and that employers maintain accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

The Wage and Hour Division recovered nearly $197 million in back wages in fiscal year (FY) 2004 for more than 288,000 workers. Average days to resolve a complaint decreased in FY 2004 from 108 days to 92 days.

For more information about the Fair Labor Standards Act and other laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the Labor Department’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243); visit the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov; or contact the Louisville Wage and Hour Division office located at 601 W. Broadway, Room 31; phone: (502) 582-5226.

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