A West Virginia nursing home company will pay $61,840 in back wages and an identical amount in damages to almost 500 employees, the Department of Labor announced.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division said Stonerise Healthcare failed to include six types of bonus payments in employees’ regular rates of pay when calculating overtime, causing artificially lowered overtime rates.
The excluded bonuses included those paid for initial sign-on, picking up more shifts and good attendance records, the agency said.
The Fair Labor and Standards Act requires that covered, non-exempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for hours worked, plus time and a half for hours beyond 40 hours a week.
The Stonerise Healthcare LL settlement will be divided among 498 employees at 16 facilities — located in Morgantown, Kingwood, Clarksburg, Bridgeport, Parkersburg, Belmont, Berkeley Springs, Keyser, Martinsburg, Charleston, Princeton, Beckley, Rainelle, Lindside, Ronceverte and Wellsburg.
“We are committed to ensuring that employees receive the wages they have rightfully earned,” said Wage and Hour District Director John DuMont, in Pittsburgh. “We are also committed to ensuring that employers who fail to comply with the law do not gain an unfair competitive advantage over those who do.”
