Feds: Couple worked at Ionia hotel for 10 months without pay
IONIA, Mich. (WOOD) — The U.S. Department of Labor says an Ionia hotel will pay $110,000 in back wages and damages for six employees, including two who worked over 40 hours a week for the better part of a year but were not paid.
For almost 10 months, the couple believed they were working to earn free lodging at the hotel, according to a Friday release from the DOL. But, the department says, the hotel still charged them to stay on some nights.
After the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division investigated, it determined Ionia Hotel Business Inc., which operates as American Inn and Suites, and its owner paid the couple nothing from March to December 2020. It also learned the hotel did not pay minimum wage or overtime to four other employees, according to the release.
A complaint was filed in January 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, according to the department.
The DOL says a federal judge on Wednesday signed a consent judgment, which requires Ionia Hotel Business to pay the back wages and forgive the employees’ hotel bill. Ionia Hotel Business has also agreed to obey the Fair Labor Standards Act in the future, according to the department.
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