The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $63,000 in back wages after an investigation found that the operator of seven restaurants in Indiana wrongly denied overtime to 17 of its managers.
An investigation conducted by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that five Cebolla's Mexican Grill locations in Fort Wayne, Angola and Auburn, Ind., shortchanged the managers because their salaries failed to meet the executive exemption requirement for overtime under federal law. According to a news release by the DOL, the probe led to the recovery of $63,546 in unpaid overtime for the 17 managers.
“Before employers assume they do not have to pay overtime, they must ensure that the salary paid and the duties performed by managers are sufficient to relieve the employer of their legal overtime obligations,” said Patricia Lewis, Wage and Hour District Director in the DOL’s Indianapolis office. “Simply calling an employee a manager and paying them a salary is not sufficient.”
To qualify for the Administrative Exemption, an employee must be compensated at a rate of at least $684 per week, their primary duties must be non-manual or be directly related to management or general business operations, and their primary duty must include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.
Federal investigators also found that the employer did not maintain accurate records of hours worked by the managers.
