There are investigations going since 2021 where authorities have found violations in 80 percent of the more than 1,600 investigations completed in the care industry. The probes have recovered more than $28.6 million in back wages and damages for 25,000 workers. Those efforts led to nearly $1.3 million in penalties for employers.
There was a big hit to a group of Seattle-area adult home care providers. They paid more than $1 million in back wages, liquidated damages and civil money penalties after U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigations found that the employers did not pay some workers full wages, DOL said in a Dec. 6 press release.
In addition and separately, the employers failed to keep required records, according to DOL. The agency said that one Lakewood, Washington-based facility failed to maintain a record of hours worked and did not calculate wages on a workweek basis.
In the grand total of it all, the DOL reached administrative settlements with six employers in cases involving 77 care workers. The employers paid workers daily flat rates regardless of the hours they worked, DOL said, leading some to be paid less than the federal minimum wage and denied overtime pay.
It is reported that under the Biden administration, DOL has honed in on care industry employers’ wage-and-hour violations. Since 2008, the agency has recovered millions in back pay every year; in its 2021 fiscal year, DOL’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $13.8 million in back wages owed to more than 17,000 employees.
There are specific points that workers must know. For instance, covered employees who take a meal break of 30 minutes or more generally do not need to be compensated for that meal period. But if the employee is frequently interrupted by patients who request assistance during the course of the break, the employer may need to compensate the employee in that scenario.
