Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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MIAMI -- Party Caterers Inc., a Margate, Fla., catering company, has agreed to pay $23,637 in back wages to 49 employees following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

“Companies should follow federal law regarding overtime payments and not create ad hoc compensation policies,” said Will Garnitz, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Miami District Office.

Party Caterers provided food services for utilities workers who worked around the clock restoring power in South Florida following Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The company, which had seldom needed employees to work overtime in the past and paid occasional bonuses, increased their base pay in lieu of paying overtime for the additional hours worked.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that all covered employees be paid overtime premium pay, calculated at one and one-half an employee’s regular rate of pay, for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week. The law also requires that non-discretionary bonuses be included in the overtime calculations. An employer must keep accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

The Wage and Hour Division makes every effort to locate and notify all employees due back wages. The agency maintains a back wage employee locator at www.dol-esa.gov/emploc , where employees may determine if the division has obtained back wages on their behalf. If the agency is unsuccessful in locating an employee, the back wages are held for three years before being sent to the U.S. Treasury.

The Wage and Hour Division concluded 31,987 compliance actions and recovered more than $171 million in back wages for more than 246,000 employees in fiscal year 2006. Back-wage collections last year represent a 30 percent increase over back wages collected in fiscal 2001. The number of workers receiving back wages has increased by 14 percent since fiscal 2001.

For further information about FLSA requirements, call the department’s toll-free helpline at (866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243), visit the Wage and Hour Division Web site at www.wagehour.dol.gov or contact the Wage and Hour Division’s office in Birmingham at 955 22nd St. N., Suite 656; telephone (205) 731-1305.

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