Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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TAMPA, Fla. -- ECo Consultants has agreed to pay $167,454 in back wages to 44 employees following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

“Our investigation found that employees had been misclassified as exempt from overtime rules and not paid for all of their work-related hours as required by federal law,” said James Schmidt, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Tampa District Office.

Employees were paid straight time rates for all hours worked and did not receive overtime payments when working over 40 hours in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Field employees were not paid for work-related travel time, with some employees working between 42 and 67 hours in a workweek without overtime compensation.

The FLSA requires covered employees to be paid at least the minimum wage for all hours worked and time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 per week. The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees. Work-related travel time must be included when computing overtime payments for nonexempt employees.

ECo Consultants is an environmental consulting company headquartered in Palmetto, Fla.

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division concluded 30,467 compliance actions and recovered a record $220 million in back wages for more than 341,000 employees in fiscal year 2007. Back-wage collections in fiscal year 2007 represent a 67 percent increase over back wages collected in fiscal 2001. The number of workers receiving back wages has increased by 58 percent since fiscal year 2001.

Information about the FLSA is available through the department’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243); on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov; or by contacting the Wage and Hour Division office in Tampa, 4905 West Laurel St., Suite 300; telephone: 813-288-1242. Information about the current exemption can be found at www.dol.gov/fairpay.

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