California Overtime at the Car Wash: Are Inspection Numbers for Real?
November 2nd, 2009. By AbiK
By now you’ve read the news about the California Labor Commissioner imposing close to $1 million in fines after a statewide investigation of the California carwash industry.
The investigation went as follows:
42 investigators
did
230 car wash inspections
netting
141 citations
for
103 car wash businesses
The citations issued total $916,711.
Ok, great. There’s some progress. But here’s the part I’m having a hard time swallowing (as reported at Reuters; the bold is mine)…
Investigators found 49 businesses that failed to provide workers’ compensation coverage for their employees. Citations issued totaled $240,000 and businesses without workers’ compensation coverage were issued stop work orders, which prevents them from operating with employee labor.
Also found during the investigations were 12 cases where the employer did not provide employees a wage deduction statement, one case of improper payment of minimum wage and one case of improper payment of overtime. Two businesses were found to have hired minors without having the required work permits on file.
Are you kidding me?!? A slew of inspectors goes out and does 230 inspections of car wash joints and they only find ONE instance of improper payment of overtime? You and I have both most likely been to some of these car washes—and ok, this is just conjecture, but I’m guessing the guys running around with shammy cloths (maybe even shamwow!) have been on their feet for over 8 hours and that bucket that sits there begging for your tips—the one with the handwritten, cardboard “thank you” sign that sits on a folding chair awaiting your car as it “drives” out for its final wipe-off—is about all the OT pay these guys are seeing.
It’s about time someone looked into the service industries—take your pick—guaranteed just about any of them will net you labor violations a-go-go. But I’m just not quite buying the numbers here…are you?
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