A federal database lists hundreds of Connecticut employers who have been ordered to pay back wages after federal investigations since 2012. The employers range from fast-food restaurants to mobile phone stores.
Some of the employers that owed the largest amounts in one case were Family Care Plus, owing over $627,000; Euro Homecare, owing over $605,000; and the Veterans Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill, which belongs to the state Department of Veterans Affairs, owing over $424,000.
The most impacted industry is the restaurant industry, where employers were ordered to pay more than $3 million since 2012, affecting almost 2,000 employees.
The Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, Family Care Plus and Euro Homecare were not immediately available for comment.
The exact amount of stolen wages — wages employers owe their workers — in Connecticut is unknown. However, some insight can be gleaned from complaints filed by workers to the departments of labor at both the state and federal levels, which investigate these complaints and can order employers to pay back wages.
Workers can file wage complaints with the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor, which will investigate cases that might violate the Fair Labor Standards Act. If a violation of that law is found, such as not paying overtime or the federal minimum wage, WHD takes compliance action against the employer. That action can include imposing financial penalties or ordering employers to pay back wages.
Compliance action data show that from January 2012 to April 2023, WHD ordered Connecticut employers to pay back more than $10.3 million in wages for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The data only includes closed cases, meaning there could still be other active cases, and it is unknown whether the wages were paid back.
Read more: Wage theft in CT: Millions stolen from workers since 2019