Twenty employees at five Florida senior living facilities were wrongly classified as contractors, the Department of Labor announced. Paradise Villa Retirement Home has agreed to give the workers $103,389 in back pay.
“The result of this investigation is an opportunity for other employers to review their pay practices to ensure they comply with the law,” said Tony Pham, the department’s Wage and Hour district director.
The firm was charged with violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions.
Investigators discovered the senior living operator “inaccurately classified caregivers as independent contractors rather than employees and paid them flat rates per day without regard to the number of hours they actually worked.”
The department’s Wage and Hour Division offers numerous compliance assistance tools designed to help employers understand their responsibilities.
