LINCOLN BLVD. A local car wash company has paid $100,000 in back wages to 55 employees following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, federal officials announced Monday.
The investigation found that employees of Bonus Car Wash, located at 2800 Lincoln Blvd., worked as many as 10 hours a day, but did not receive correct overtime pay and sometimes earned even less than the federal minimum wage.
Bonus Car Wash also failed to properly record the hours of work for the employees — car dryers, washers, detailers and ticket writers. The workers began receiving back wage payments in November 2006 for work performed between August 2004 and October 2005.
Final back wage payments were completed this month, said George Friday Jr., the Wage and Hour Division’s regional administrator for the western states.
“The Department of Labor is committed to the strong enforcement of labor laws,”
Friday said. “In this case, the low-wage workers were not properly compensated for their hours worked, and I am pleased we were able to recover $100,000 in back wages for them.”
Representatives from Bonus Car Wash did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The Fair Labor standards Act (FLSA) requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage and receive overtime at one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.
The Wage and Hour division concluded 31,987 compliance actions in fiscal year 2006 and recovered more than $171 million in back wages for more than 246,000 employees. Back-wage collections last year represent a 30-percent increase over back wages collected in fiscal year 2001, with the number of workers receiving back wages increasing by 14 percent since that time, Friday said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 30, 2007. Read the original PDF.