DOL Recovers $58k in Back Wages for 13 Tennessee Hotel Workers

According to a news brief recently released by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), investigators for its Wage and Hour Division recently found Ashmi Hotel Corp.—operating in Pleasant View, Tennessee, as Quality Inn—failed to correctly pay housekeepers and front office staff for their labor.

In the case of one of its housekeepers, Ashmi completely neglected to pay the worker for any hours worked, a minimum wage violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Other workers were paid by check for their first 40 hours worked, but then with cash at their regular rate for any hours over 40 in a workweek. As such, the employer did not pay the additional half-time rate for overtime hours as required by law.

Investigators also found that Ashmi failed to keep accurate records of workers’ hours, including the time some workers spent running errands to buy hotel supplies. When properly recorded as time worked, some employees’ workweeks increased to more than 40 hours and overtime wages were owed.

In the end, the DOL was able to recover US$58,835 in back wages for 13 of the hotel’s workers.

“When employers break the law to save the business a few bucks, they deprive workers from their hard-earned wages and make it harder for them to provide for themselves,” said Lisa Kelly, Wage and Hour Division district director in Nashville, Tennessee. “Hotel workers are some of the lowest paid in this country, and we are committed to these vulnerable workers, and others like them, to make sure they get paid what they earned.”