Feds recover $24,000 from Kentucky business accused of shorting workers on overtime
Federal authorities have recovered more than $24,000 in back wages and damages for employees of a Kentucky vape shop accused of shorting them on overtime.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Dec. 4 that it had recovered a total of $24,285 for 22 employees of 25 Vape & Smoke LLC in Laurel County.
The department alleged in a complaint that the business and owner Salik Rao violated federal law by not paying employees time and a half for working more than 80 hours in a two-week pay period.
The business would record the number of hours over 80 on the back of employees’ time cards and pay them straight time for those, not overtime, the complaint alleged.
Rao signed a consent order agreeing to the payments.
The order also requires Rao and the business to follow the law and bars them from firing or discriminating against employees for receiving money under the decree.
“25 Vape & Smoke asked them to do a job, they did it, and those workers deserve to take home every dollar they earned,” Karen Garnett-Civils, district director for the department’s Wage and Hour Division, said in a news release.
Employees who believe they’ve been shorted on wages can get information and file a complaint on the department’s site.
