Company Finds Out The Hard Way It’s Illegal To Pay $1.21 An Hour In America
October 27th, 2014Via: Huffington Post:
This takes egregiously low wages to a whole new level.
A Silicon Valley company that digitizes images said Thursday that an “administrative error” led to it paying eight workers flown in from Bangalore, India just $1.21 an hour to work 120-hour weeks installing computers in the company’s headquarters.
Electronics For Imaging paid the workers $40,000 in back wages and overtime and a $3,500 fine after the U.S. Department of Labor investigated the payroll violation based on an anonymous tip, a department official told The Huffington Post.
“These folks were not only not getting time-and-a-half when working extremely long hours, they weren’t making the basic minimum wage,” Michael Eastwood, assistant district director for the Labor Department’s San Francisco division said.
In a statement, the company said it didn’t realize it was illegal to pay workers temporarily in the United States the same wages they earn in their home countries. The $1.21 was equivalent to what the employees made in Indian rupees.
…
Wage theft is nothing new in the Silicon Valley region. Last year, Bloom Energy Corporation was forced to pay out nearly $64,000 in back pay and damages to 14 workers from Mexico who were paid just $2.66 an hour.
Research Credit: ottilie
