It reads like it was written for businesses that only existed before 1860A little catch from the DOL rule book.Any time the DOL accuses your company of breaking federal pay laws, it’s a major headache.But when the mistake is clearly unintentional and the feds slap you with a “willful” FLSA violation, it’s a different type of headache altogether.Willful FLSA violations not only carry more expensive civil penalties, they also allow the DOL to look at a full extra year of employers’ payroll data to assess penalties.The DOL even has a tendency to get creative from time to time. In one recent case, the feds took the rare step of requiring the company to furnish every employee with a copy of their time sheet after each pay period, a paperwork headache and a guaranteed source of arguments that wound up keeping a goodly number of HR employees and pay managers working overtime when they would much rather be home, even with the overtime pay.What’s worse, many companies aren’t aware of how easy it is to wind up with a willful violation.For the DOL to impose a willful violation on your company, all it takes is a single, repeated slip.Recent example: Tavco Chandler Street Inc. and five associated companies – doing business as (DBA) Golden Pizza.Tavco was accused of violating the FLSA’s overtime and record keeping rules. The DOL claimed the company didn’t record all the employees’ work hours and failed to pay workers OT.Because this wasn’t the first time Tavco was investigated for FLSA issues, the DOL said the violations were willful. As a result, the company agreed (they say it was an agreement, but Michael Corleone also made agreements. I’m not sure it isn’t extortion if you get to write the rules by which you can hold others accountable) to pay $292,016 in back wages to 73employees. On top of that amount, Tavco will fork over an equal amount in damages.The article goes on to conclude that if any one member of a conglomerate gets hit by the feds, it would be a good idea to keep a sharp eye on all of them. I would recommend paying workers directly so they would actually have to pay their own taxes and union fees,and by default devastate a major source of democrat power. Take away enough power, and the party of more government won’t be able to keep a stranglehold on federal agencies.This will allow us to appoint some normals (definition: people who don’t think its OK to sacrifice others upon the altars of fill-in-the-blank causes) to positions of power and actually make some changes.