LinkedIn pays $6M over employee wage violations
After a US Department of Labor investigation finds the social network violated federal wage law, the company pays workers overtime back wages and damages.
Following an investigation by the US Department of Labor, LinkedIn has paid nearly $6 million to hundreds of its current and former employees.
The investigation found that the social network for professionals was in violation of the country's Fair Labor Standard Act by failing to record, account, and pay for all hours employees worked each week. It appears some of LinkedIn's employees were working "off the clock" and not getting paid for overtime, which is illegal under federal wage law.
LinkedIn has paid more than $3.3 million in overtime back wages and more than $2.5 million in damages to 359 former and current employees who worked in the California, Illinois, Nebraska, and New York offices.
The Department of Labor commended LinkedIn for agreeing to pay the full amount and taking steps to make sure the violations didn't happen again.
"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," Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division administrator David Weil said in a statement. "We are particularly pleased that LinkedIn also has committed to take positive and practical steps towards securing future compliance."
LinkedIn said it was a priority to get this situation settled and for its workers to be paid for all of the time they've worked.
"Talent is LinkedIn's number one priority, so of course, we were eager to work closely with the Dept. of Labor to quickly and equitably rectify this situation," a LinkedIn spokesperson told CNET. "This was a function of not having the right tools in place for a small subset of our sales force to track hours properly; prior to the DoL approaching us, we had already begun to remedy this."
LinkedIn's revenue and profit last quarter showed the company has been going strong with growth in all segments of its business. Over the last year, the social network has been working to bolster many of its products, most notably its mobile apps. In April, LinkedIn announced its user base had passed more than 300 million people worldwide.