Keene home care service provider failed to pay overtime wages

MANCHESTER, NH – A federal investigation into the pay practices of a New Hampshire home care service provider that found the employer denied employees overtime wages has recovered $374,640 in back wages and liquidated damages for 46 healthcare workers.

Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined D+S Elder Services, based in Keene, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when it paid employees straight-time wages for hours over 40 in a workweek, failing to pay overtime compensation as required by the law. The employer also did not pay employees for time spent traveling between worksites or track that time as hours worked.

“Too frequently, the Wage and Hour Division finds violations in the home care industry related to overtime and failure to pay workers for travel time,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Costly consequences like those in this case can be avoided by employers who review their pay practices and our compliance assistance materials, and who contact us with questions.”

In fiscal year 2021, the division recovered nearly $14 million for 17,079 healthcare industry workers in 1,194 investigations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that there were more than 2 million job openings for healthcare and social assistance workers in September 2022, and about 664,000 workers in those fields separated from their...

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