Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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ST. LOUIS -- The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that Neat Touch Cleaning Service, St. Louis, Mo., has agreed to pay a total of $30,967 to 48 employees to correct violations of the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“The Labor Department is committed to ensuring that workers receive all the wages they have earned,” said Enrique Rodriguez, director of the department’s Wage and Hour Division St. Louis District Office. “I am pleased that we were able to recover back wages for these low wage workers.”

The Wage and Hour Division investigation found that employees, many of whom worked as many as 60 hours per week, were paid straight time for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The FLSA requires that covered workers be paid at least the minimum wage for all hours worked and one and one-half their regular rate of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. Employers must also maintain adequate and accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

Neat Touch, a residential home and commercial office cleaning company, cooperated with the investigation and has agreed to future compliance with the FLSA.

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

For more information about the FLSA, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at (866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243) or contact the Wage and Hour Division’s St. Louis District Office at (314) 539-2706. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.