A Louisville, Kentucky country club operator has recently been ordered to pay nearly $28,000 in back pay and fines by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) for violations including paying some employees below minimum wage and failing to uphold child labor requirements.

South Park Country Club Inc., located in the Louisville neighborhood of Fairdale, did not meet federal minimum wage requirements for some workers, denied overtime pay, paid incorrect overtime rates and “assigned minor-aged workers duties not permitted by law,” a Dec. 27, 2021 DOL press release said.

“Country clubs exist to provide their members with a relaxing and entertaining experience made possible by hard-working employees who have the right to be paid all of the wages they’ve earned,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville, Kentucky, said in the release. “The operators of South Park Country Club not only failed to ensure workers received required minimum and overtime wages, they violated federal child labor laws by allowing minors to work more hours and later than the law permits, and by assigning them duties considered unsafe for young workers.”

The DOL recovered $21,507 in back wages for 43 workers and assessed South Park County a $6,190 fine for its child labor violations, the release said.

Among the violations, the investigation revealed the operator required employees to share their tips with managers, “computed overtime based on the direct cash wage rather than the full minimum wage” and did not include commissions when calculating overtime rates, the release said.

The operator also “employed multiple 14 and 15-year-olds for more than 3 hours on a school day or more than 8 hours on a Saturday or Sunday during the school year and past 7 p.m. after Labor Day” and allowed two 15-year-old employees to operate golf carts, including the loading and unloading of golf bags, both violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the release said.