14 DAY TRIAL // LinkedIn has to pay nearly $6 million (€4.47 million) over employee wage violations after an investigation by the US Department of Labor found the company in violation of federal wage laws.
The issues that LinkedIn is guilty of are failing to record, account, and pay for all hours employees worked each week, which is in violation of the US Fair Labor Standard Act. Basically, some of the company’s employees were working extra hours and they were not getting paid for overtime.
LinkedIn has paid over $3.3 million (€2.46 million) in back wages for overtime and some $2.5 million (€1.86 million) in damages for 359 employees, both former and current, who worked in the offices in New York, Nebraska, California, and Illinois.
“This company has shown a great deal of integrity by fully cooperating with investigators and stepping up to the plate without hesitation to help make workers whole. We are particularly pleased that LinkedIn also has committed to take positive and practical steps towards securing future compliance,” said Dr. David Weil, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.
Aside from paying back wages and damages to its employees, LinkedIn has also entered into an “enhanced compliance agreement” with the department, which includes agreeing to provide compliance training and distribute its policy prohibiting off-the-clock work to all nonexempt employees and their managers.
The professional social network also agreed to meet with managers of affected employees to remind them that overtime work must be recorded and paid for, as well as to reinforce LinkedIn’s policy prohibiting retaliation against any employee who raises concerns about workplace issues.
Susana Blanco, district director for the division in San Francisco, says that working overtime is something that American workers are quite familiar with and this harms employees because sometimes they are denied their wages and affects the amount of time spent with their families.
“We urge all employers, large and small, to review their pay practices to ensure employees know their basic workplace rights and that the commitment to compliance works through all levels of the organization. The department is committed to protecting the rights of workers and leveling the playing field for all law-abiding employers,” she added as a message to anyone who may be in the same position as the LinkedIn employees.
As a company, LinkedIn has been doing well. In the year’s second quarter, the company’s reported sales were up 47 percent over last year, to $534 million (€399 million). Profits rose as well to 51 cents (€38 cents) per share. For the first time, LinkedIn reported that it had more than 300 million users on its network, although it hasn’t picked up the habit of reporting the number of monthly active users as other social networks do.