Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a “nonexempt” worker is one who is covered by the law’s minimum wage and overtime rules, so they must be paid at least the federal minimum wage and at least time‑and‑a‑half for all hours over 40 in a workweek. A worker is nonexempt unless they clearly meet all the requirements for a specific exemption (such as the executive, administrative, or professional exemptions), which generally include being paid on a salary basis at or above a set salary level and having certain high‑level job duties. To determine if a worker is nonexempt, an employer must compare the worker’s actual duties and pay to the detailed exemption tests in the DOL’s regulations and fact sheets; job titles alone do not decide exempt status.
Back wages are the unpaid wages an employee should have received under the law (for example, unpaid overtime or minimum wage) and represent the difference between what was actually paid and what should have been paid. Liquidated damages are an additional, equal amount that a court can order an employer to pay on top of back wages, meant to compensate workers for the delay and loss caused by not being paid correctly when the work was performed. So in many FLSA cases, a worker can receive both back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the wage recovery for the violation period.
When a court judgment says an employer is “enjoined” from future FLSA violations, it means the court has issued an injunction: a binding order requiring the employer to obey the FLSA’s requirements going forward. If the employer later violates the law again, the government can ask the court to enforce that injunction, which can lead to additional sanctions or contempt of court penalties beyond having to pay any new back wages owed.
The Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program is a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division program that lets employers voluntarily audit their own pay and leave practices, identify potential FLSA minimum wage/overtime or certain FMLA violations, and then work with the DOL to pay 100% of back wages or provide other remedies quickly while avoiding litigation. To use PAID, an employer (1) reviews DOL compliance materials, (2) conducts a self‑audit to identify affected employees, time periods, and amounts owed, (3) contacts WHD with its findings and calculations, and (4) after WHD review, pays the back wages/remedies—usually within 15 days—and provides proof of payment to WHD.
A worker can check if the Wage and Hour Division is holding back wages for them by using the Workers Owed Wages (WOW) search tool. Go to the WOW website, enter the name of the employer (or a keyword) in the search field, and run the search; if money is available, the tool will list the employer and provide instructions or contact information for claiming the wages. If nothing appears but the worker still believes wages are owed, they can contact the local WHD office or the toll‑free helpline listed on the site.
The public consent judgment and DOL news release state that the court ordered North Central Health Care to pay back wages and liquidated damages and to comply with the FLSA, but they do not indicate that the employer formally admitted legal wrongdoing; many consent judgments resolve cases without an admission of liability. The available documents also do not mention additional civil money penalties (such as fines for willful or repeat violations), so based on public information we cannot say the company faces penalties beyond paying the ordered back wages, liquidated damages, and complying with the injunction.
The consent judgment specifies the total amount North Central Health Care must pay ($81,243 in back wages plus $81,243 in liquidated damages, for a total of $162,486), but it does not publicly spell out the exact payment schedule or method for distributing those funds to each of the 68 employees. In similar FLSA consent judgments, employers typically must pay the ordered amounts within a court‑specified period, with the distribution supervised or documented for the Wage and Hour Division, but the precise timing and mechanics for this case are not detailed in the available public release.
The DOL Timesheet app is a free smartphone app (iOS and Android) from the Wage and Hour Division that lets workers and employers record start and stop times, breaks, and overtime for one or more jobs, and then automatically calculates regular and overtime pay. Users can use the records to compare against paychecks and, if needed, share them when raising pay concerns. The compliance toolkits are online guides that organize key legal requirements, examples, and checklists by law or industry (such as an FLSA toolkit); employers can use them to understand who must be paid minimum wage and overtime, what counts as hours worked, and what records to keep, while employees can use them to learn what rights they should expect at work.