The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered a Selma meat market to pay more than $149,000 in back wages and damages after finding the business guilty of violating federal labor pay standards. 

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Alfonso’s Carniceria faces the fine for failing to pay workers at the required overtime rate. 

Instead of paying overtime at time-and-a-half of a worker’s regular rate, the employer paid for overtime hours at straight-time rates, in cash and off the books, according to a brief on the case. 

The market also failed to pay cashiers, prep cooks and the butcher’s assistant for all the hours they worked, and paid two butchers flat salaries without regard to how many hours they worked. The business also failed to maintain records as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Alfonso’s Carniceria is now required to pay $74,862 in back wages to the eight employees, plus damages, for a total of $149,724. 

“Thanks to this investigation, these eight workers will finally receive the wages they worked long hours to earn,” said Rick Newton, director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in Sacramento. “We continue our focus on industries where these types of violations are common, and where vulnerable workers may be unlikely to step forward to complain.”

“The settlement reached in this case demonstrates how costly noncompliance can be for an employer, and sends a strong message to other employers who may be paying workers in this manner,” he continued. 

More information on federal wage laws can be found at www.dol.gov/whd.