Workers at two Los Angeles car washes are to get thousands of dollars in back pay after their employer and primary supervisor agreed to fork out more than US$1 million to settle a wage theft lawsuit.
Silver Lake Car Wash and Catalina Car Wash, along with supervisor Yoosef Aminpour, have agreed to hand over US$1,084,972 in restitution to staff from early 2014 to June of this year. They also agreed to pay more than US$519,000 in civil penalties and nearly US$36,000 in litigation costs, while being placed under a four-year injunction to compel compliance with all applicable wage and hourly pay laws and regulations.
The affected employees will receive between US$17,000 and US$40,000 in back pay, according to The Drive.
The Los Angeles Attorney’s Office lawsuit alleged that the companies had underreported the number of work hours performed by about 60 employees and failed to provide them with the boots and gloves required to do the job. The lawsuit added that staff were paid as little as US$45 despite working 10-hour days and received no overtime pay or breaks.
The federal minimum wage is US$7.25 an hour, although Los Angeles, because of its high cost of living, sets rates at US$13.25 per hour for companies that employ 26 or more workers. The rate is US$12.00 an hour for smaller employers.
Meanwhile, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Center (NELP), the US ‘Fight for 15’ movement, which aims to boost minimum wage levels to $15 per hour, has directly led to pay increases of US$68 billion for 22 million low-wage workers in both the public and private sectors.
As NELP noted, a number of cities and states have already passed minimum wage increases – some to US$15 an hour, some to US$12 or lower. In November, voters in Missouri and Arkansas voted to raise their minimums to US$12 by 2023 and US$11 by 2021 respectively. But the problem, according to the New York Intelligencer, is that the current federal minimum wage is now worth proportionately less than when first established in 2007.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
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Workers at two Los Angeles car washes are to get thousands of dollars in back pay after their employer and primary supervisor agreed to fork out more than US$1 million to settle a wage theft lawsuit.
Silver Lake Car Wash and Catalina Car Wash, along with supervisor Yoosef Aminpour, have agreed to hand over US$1,084,972 in restitution to staff from early 2014 to June of this year. They also agreed to pay more than US$519,000 in civil penalties and nearly US$36,000 in litigation costs, while being placed under a four-year injunction to compel compliance with all applicable wage and hourly pay laws and regulations.
The affected employees will receive between US$17,000 and US$40,000 in back pay, according to The Drive.
The Los Angeles Attorney’s Office lawsuit alleged that the companies had underreported the number of work hours performed by about 60 employees and failed to provide them with the boots and gloves required to do the job. The lawsuit added that staff were paid as little as US$45 despite working 10-hour days and received no overtime pay or breaks.
The federal minimum wage is US$7.25 an hour, although Los Angeles, because of its high cost of living, sets rates at US$13.25 per hour for companies that employ 26 or more workers. The rate is US$12.00 an hour for smaller employers.
Meanwhile, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Center (NELP), the US ‘Fight for 15’ movement, which aims to boost minimum wage levels to $15 per hour, has directly led to pay increases of US$68 billion for 22 million low-wage workers in both the public and private sectors.
As NELP noted, a number of cities and states have already passed minimum wage increases – some to US$15 an hour, some to US$12 or lower. In November, voters in Missouri and Arkansas voted to raise their minimums to US$12 by 2023 and US$11 by 2021 respectively. But the problem, according to the New York Intelligencer, is that the current federal minimum wage is now worth proportionately less than when first established in 2007.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
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