More than 3,000 caregivers at 84 residential nursing care facilities across three Midwestern states must be paid $2,939,576 in back overtime wages by the locations’ Illinois-based management company to resolve violations found in a US Department of Labor investigation. The department’s Wage and Hour Division found Petersen Health Care Inc. of Peoria failed to pay the correct overtime because the employer wrongly assumed the affected workers were not entitled to overtime pay. They failed to pay wages for meal periods of less than 20 minutes, did not add bonuses and other incentive pay to workers’ hourly rate when calculating overtime pay, and failed to maintain accurate records of work hours. Their actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.
In addition to agreeing to pay the overtime back wages, the company’s primary owner and CEO Mark Petersen signed an enhanced compliance agreement with the department to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act in the future.
