Investigators found that the MCM Elegante and MCM Grande Hotels paid housekeeping staff a flat rate per room cleaned, without regard to the 
number of hours worked. When these employees worked more than 40 hours in a week, the employers continued to pay only this flat rate, failing to pay overtime at one and one-half times the employees’ regular rates of pay, as required by the FLSA. A housekeeper paid $3 per room, cleaning three rooms per hour, would earn $450 for a 50-hour week at the piece rate, without overtime. The employee would legally be due $495, a shortage of $45.
MCM Elegante and MCM Grande Hotels in New Mexico and Texas have paid $78,876 in overtime back wages to 200 dishwashers, bartenders, wait staff, bellmen, housekeeping, and maintenance workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD).
The investigation allegedly found overtime, minimum wage, and recordkeeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Employees in Albuquerque, New Mexico and several cities in Texas, were not properly paid wages they were due. The hotels are owned by HTL Operating LLC, based in Odessa, Texas.
As a result of the investigation, the employer has agreed to comply with the FLSA at all of its locations. It will pay the back wages found due in full.
