Krispy Kreme will pay nearly $1.2 million to hundreds of workers after the company violated federal overtime laws at several stores, according to federal labor department officials.
The Charlotte-based doughnut king and coffee shop agreed to pay back wages and liquidated damages to 516 workers for the overtime violations, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a news release Thursday.
Amounts due to each employee listed in court documents range from over $100 to nearly $14,000.
What began as an investigation at one Krispy Kreme store in Louisville, Kentucky, led the department’s Wage and Hour Division to expand its probe to all 242 stores nationwide. The labor law violations were “widespread and systemic,” the agency said.
Krispy Kreme failed to include monthly bonuses in some employees’ regular rates of pay, investigators said. “By doing so, the employer paid overtime at lower rates than the Fair Labor Standards Act requires,” the agency said. The Labor Department did not initially identify the stores where the violations occurred.
Krispy Kreme is committed to paying its workers fairly and in accordance with applicable laws, the company said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer Thursday afternoon.
“We do not agree with the department’s findings and the basis for them,” the company said. “However, we have agreed to settle this matter with no admission of wrong-doing in the best interests of our business and our team members.”
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