Peoria-based nursing care management company forced to pay nearly $3M in overtime back wages

PEORIA (WEEK) - More than 3,000 caregivers at 84 residential nursing care facilities across Illinois, Iowa and Missouri must be paid $2,939,576 in back overtime wages by the Peoria-based management company to resolve violations found in a federal Department of Labor investigation.

Petersen Health Care Inc. of Peoria was found to have failed to pay the correct overtime because the company wrongly assumed the affected workers were not entitled to overtime pay, according to a release from the United States Department of Labor.

The company is accused of failing to pay wages for meal periods of less than 20 minutes, not adding bonuses and other incentive pay to workers’ hourly rate when calculating overtime pay and failing to maintain accurate records of work hours - violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“While residential healthcare workers at Petersen Health Care Inc. provided around-the-clock, daily living assistance and delivered essential care to people in need, they were subject to pay practices that underreported their hours of work and denied them the pay they were legally due.” said Wage and Hour Division Acting Administrator Jessica Looman. “The U.S. Department of Labor will ensure that workers who commit themselves to caring for others will receive the wages they earned so they can also take care of themselves and their families.”

The company’s primary owner and CEO Mark Petersen also signed an enhanced compliance agreement with the department to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act in the future, the release said.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.