Many people have an account on LinkedIn, the “professional” social media platform that has become synonymous with job hunting and networking, and many more people have heard of the website even if they don’t have an account. LinkedIn was actually founded in Santa Monica and is still headquartered here in California, though the company has many offices around the country now.
As it turns out, these LinkedIn offices all around the country have been dealing with a serious issue: their employer has not been paying them the appropriate wages. The United States Labor Department investigated the company and found that during a two-year span — from Feb. 2012 to Feb. 2014 — they failed to pay overtime wages to 359 employees.
The violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) resulted in a $3.3 million decision by the Labor Department, with that money going to the employees for retroactive overtime pay. An additional $2.5 million will also be paid in damages.
This is a tricky area of labor law, not necessarily because of the violation itself, but because it can be very difficult for the affected employees to even know that their hours and wages are being manipulated, altered or outright unrecognized. This story serves as a very important reminder that sometimes companies, even if they may have good intentions, could miss critical hours or wages of employees, resulting in hardship for those employees.
No matter the circumstances, if hours or wages of employees have gone unpaid and the action violates the FLSA, the company can (and should) be held responsible.
Source: International Business Times, “LinkedIn To Spend $6M To Compensate Employees For Violating Labor Laws,” Avaneesh Pandey, Aug. 5, 2014
