A Shady Fort Worth Business Owner Cheats Employees, Now Paying The Price
Good news for twenty-one workers in Fort Worth, TX, this week, after the U.S. Labor Department stepped in to force a business owner to actually pay employees.
Just a reminder that it was just 120 years ago, in 1904, that they stopped allowing kids to work. And you know if some of these business owners could they'd turn us all into free labor.
It's true. Or you know that they'd still be running 7-year-old orphans up and down assembly lines 80 hours per week. That's cheaper than A.I.!
As of 1904, under Franklin D. Roosevelt's watch "Federal child labor law generally prohibits the employment of minors in nonagricultural occupations under the age of 14, restricts the hours and types of work that can be performed by minors under 16, and prohibits the employment of minors under the age of 18 in any hazardous occupation."
The U.S. Department of Labor has reportedly recovered back wages for 21 employees of a 7-Eleven in downtown Fort Worth. According to reports the back wages and penalties total nearly $56,000.
CBS 19 reports that "The owner of the convenience store in the 1400 block of W. 7th Street, allegedly failed to pay 21 employees for hours worked beyond their regular schedule, leading to minimum wage and overtime violations, according to the U.S. Department of Labor."
“Employees must be paid for all hours actually worked not just those that an employer schedules them to work,” said Dallas-based Wage and Hour District Director Jesus A. Valdez. “Employers who have questions or concerns about what are considered hours worked are encouraged to contact us for assistance.”
Investigations by the Wage and Hour Division have reported that they recovered more than $275 million in back wages for nearly 163,000 workers in fiscal year 2023.