Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. --

Omni Financial, Vero Beach, Fla., has begun paying $195,346 in back wages to 312 employees after an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that the company had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“After reviewing records and conducting interviews, the Wage and Hour Division determined that the company had failed to pay the required minimum wage to employees who received salaries, commissions, or non-discretionary bonuses,” said Juan Coria, assistant district director for Wage and Hour’s Fort Lauderdale office.

Coria added that the employer also failed to properly pay overtime to commissioned and salaried employees who were misclassified as exempt from the federal overtime law.

Employees who are paid commissions must normally receive a guarantee of at least the minimum wage for each hour worked. Some commissioned employees may be subject to a partial overtime exemption if they work in a retail establishment and meet other criteria as defined by the department. For example, the employee’s regular rate must exceed one and one-half the federal minimum wage for all hours worked in a workweek, and at least half of their total earnings for a representative period must be from commissions.

The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for valid executive, administrative and professional employees. To qualify for the exemption, employees must meet certain job duty and salary tests. Information about the current exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees can be found at www.dol.gov/fairpay.

Omni Financial workers receiving the back wages included sales openers, paralegals, sales managers, clerical employees and other associates.

The Labor Department also offers a user-friendly Web site to help employers properly pay and classify their employees and an on-line tool for determining overtime eligibility called the E-laws FLSA Overtime Security Advisor, which can be found at www.dol.gov/elaws/overtime.htm.

For more information about the FLSA, call the toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) or visit the Wage and Hour website at www.wagehour.dol.gov. Staff from the Fort Lauderdale district office, located at 299 E. Broward Blvd., Room 408 conducted the investigation.

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