Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. --

Tiger Paw Construction has agreed to pay $77,540 in overtime back wages to 40 employees after the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division determined the company had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“Tiger Paw Construction established three entities to oversee different construction operations, but never combined the hours employees worked for the three companies,” said John Blaine, Wage and Hour’s district director in Charlotte. “Because Tiger Paw controlled employees’ wages and conditions of employment, all the hours the employees worked during a single workweek should have been combined and the employees paid overtime for hours worked over 40,” Blaine added.

From January to April 2004, Tiger Paw Construction paid employees straight time for all hours worked in a week, including those hours over 40 that should have been paid at an overtime rate. From May 2004 through January 2006, one of three companies --- Tiger Paw Construction, Rogers Timber Products or RTP --- paid employees for the first 40 hours of work and another paid employees for hours worked over 40. The over-40 hours continued to be calculated using a straight-time rate.

Employees, investigators found, frequently worked more than 40 hours during a week. The FLSA requires employers to pay covered non-exempt workers one-and-one half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a single work week. Employers are also required to maintain accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

The Franklin, N.C.-based company cooperated with investigators and agreed to future compliance with the law.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the 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 Charlotte Wage and Hour Division office, Mart Office Building, 800 Briar Creek Road, Suite CC-412; phone: (704) 344-6302.

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