A Pennsylvania home care company will have to pay more than $1 million related to overtime wages of 159 workers, liquidated damages after the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) obtained a consent judgement following an investigation, according to a DOL release.
 
Caring Hearts Health Care Services of Collingdale, Penn., was accused of not paying its employees overtime wages for hours over 40 in a workweek, instead paying them the same rate for all hours worked. In addition, the employer failed to accurately record employees’ hours worked, according to the DOL.
 
“These violations were willful, as shown by an employee handbook stating that non-exempt employees ‘are entitled to overtime pay as required by applicable federal and state law,’” the DOL stated in its release. 
 
The judgment requires Caring Hearts Health Care Services to pay 159 employees $478,294 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, bars the employer from future Fair Labor Standards Act violations and affirms $97,459 in civil penalties the department assessed for the willful nature of the employer’s violations, according to the DOL.
 
The FLSA requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.