Myrtle Beach company owes $156K in back wages.

• Position: Brief article

A Myrtle Beach roofing company owes more than $156,000 in back wages to 84 of its employees, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor revealed.

Monarch Co., operating in Myrtle Beach as Monarch Roofing, will now have to pay $156,346 in back wages to its employees, according to an investigation by the Wage and Hour Division, the labor department announced in a news release.

Monarch violated overtime and recordkeeping laws outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act when it incorrectly classified 81 of its salaried employees as exempt from overtime, "paying them flat salaries without regard to the number of hours they actually worked," the release said. "This practice resulted in overtime violations when the employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but were not paid overtime."

The company also failed to keep time records for the 81 salaried employees.

Monarch did not pay three of its hourly employees the additional half-time they earned when they worked more than 40 hours in a work week, as required by law, the release said.

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