Sanibel-Captiva News
Island Cow required to pay about $222K in back wages
The U.S. Department of Labor reported today that an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division of The Island Cow on Sanibel recovered $222,432 in back wages for 48 workers. The division’s investigators determined that The Island Cow violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by operating an unlawful tip pool, which required tipped employees to share earnings with non-tipped workers, including dishwashing assistants and kitchen expeditors. The employer also classified cooks, a bookkeeper and a bar manager incorrectly as exempt from overtime requirements, and paid them flat salaries regardless of the number of hours they worked. By doing so, The Island Cow violated the FLSA when it failed to pay the workers overtime when they exceeded 40 hours in a workweek. The employer also failed to maintain accurate records of the number of hours employees worked and of the wages paid to workers, ...
