In what’s being called the largest wage theft case related to an individual in the nation, a Denver assisted living company is on the hook for approximately $1 million for failing to pay a caregiver minimum wage and overtime.
Thursday, Denver District Court Judge Andrew J. Luxen awarded worker Aleta Ayo a judgment of $830,737.68, plus attorney’s fees that are estimated to be approximately $250,000, according to her attorney, David Miller of the Wilhite Law Firm. The lawyer called the largest award to a single minimum-wage worker, according to Colorado Public Radio.
Miller told McKnight’s Senior Living that the total judgment includes unpaid back pay and overtime wages, plus penalties, damages and interest that add up to $622,000. He said that the case will end up costing the provider more than $1 million in the end.
In December, a jury ruled that Ayo had been underpaid during her seven years with Meadow Vista Assisted Living. She had begun working as a live-in caregiver at the community in 2015, providing 24/7 care to up to eight residents with varying mental illnesses, according to the media outlet.
Ayo’s reported starting pay was $3,000 per month. She said she complained to the owners about being overworked and having no relief and said that they made “empty promises” about getting help that never came, according to CBS News. Ayo personally paid friends and relatives to stay at the community so she could run errands.
In 2021, she filed a lawsuit that resulted in a jury finding that the company had not paid her minimum wage for the hours she had worked, as well as overtime. The jury found that she had worked between 63 and 149 hours a week.
“It needs to serve as a warning to employers to tell them there’s real-world liability if they violate wage theft laws,” Miller told CBS News.
Ayo’s case was helped when, just before the trial began in 2022, a Denver District Court judge issued an order declining to follow two 10th Circuit Court rulings that had found that workers like Ayo weren’t covered by state minimum wage and its overtime laws under the “companion exception” and its “household modifier.”
In that District Court ruling, the judge wrote that the Circuit Court did not correctly factor in orders and definitions from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment related to overtime and minimum pay standards.
Meadow Vista had not responded to a request for comment from McKnight’s Senior Living as of the production deadline.
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