Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., is ordered to pay $70,157 in back wages to 487 current and former employees at 12 of its health care facilities.
This order comes following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division that discovered employees were not correctly compensated for work breaks, which is a violation of the overtime provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
"All employees deserve full and fair compensation for all hours worked," says Cynthia Watson, regional administrator of the department's Wage and Hour Division in the Southwest. "Health care workers are some of the lowest paid in the nation. The FLSA provides protections not only to workers but also to employers who depend on the Labor Department to ensure that no company receives an unfair advantage by dodging the law. Similar facilities should take notice and ensure that their policies are in compliance with federal law."
Recommended For You
According to investigators, Avera McKennan deducted time from employees' hours for meal and rest breaks that totaled to less than 30 minutes. The employees were not correctly compensated for overtime hours, which are defined as hours worked beyond 40 in a week, because the breaks were not counted toward employees' total weekly hours. Investigators came to the conclusion that these violations were systemic throughout Avera McKennan when it determined all locations used the same payroll and timekeeping systems and implemented the same administrative regulations to record time for hourly employees.
Moving forward, Avera McKennan has agreed to comply with the FLSA by providing training for its employees and managers as well as programming its timekeeping software not to subtract time from employees' hours worked for breaks that are fewer than 30 minutes. DOL offers a smartphone application, which is available in English and Spanish, to help employees independently monitor the hours they work and calculate the wages they should receive.
Under FLSA, employees must be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for each hour worked as well as time and one-half their regular rates. This includes commissions, bonuses and incentive pay for all hours worked beyond 40 per week.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
