A Los Angeles garment manufacturer will pay more than $164,000 to 142 employees for overtime violations, and about $9,500 to 42 employees for minimum wage violations of federal employment law, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday.
Investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Chloe Apparel Inc. violated the overtime and minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, officials said.
A representative of the company could not immediately be reached.
The firm paid the employees straight time for overtime hours worked after 40 hours in a work week. The employer also failed to pay the proper minimum wage to a subset of workers, according to the Labor Department.
Failing to pay for the time resulted in employees not receiving their legally required overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, officials said.
“It is the obligation of all employers to accurately pay overtime wages at time-and-one-half after 40 hours in a week, regardless if the employee is paid on a piece-rate, day-rate, or on a salary basis,” said Skarleth Kozlo, assistant director for the Wage and Hour Division office in West Covina. “Given the garment industry’s poor compliance history — especially in Southern California — the Wage and Hour Division makes it a priority to investigate garment wage practices to verify compliance with federal laws.”
—Staff and wire reports