Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that Mortgage Research Center LLC in Columbia has agreed to pay a total of $54,835 to 52 employees to correct violations of the 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 workers.”

An investigation by the Wage and Hour Division found that the mortgage loan broker and mortgage banker failed to pay salaried non-exempt loan officers and processors proper overtime compensation when the employees worked more than 40 hours per week. The employer inappropriately applied various exemptions where the employees either lacked the required salary level or did not meet other requirements.

The FLSA requires that covered workers be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and one and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. Employers also must maintain adequate and accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment. The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees. To qualify for exemption, employees generally must meet certain job duty and salary tests.

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 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), visit the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov or contact the Wage and Hour Division’s St. Louis District Office at (314) 539-2706. Information about the current exemption for white-collar executive and administrative employees can be found at www.dol.gov/fairpay.

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