A federal judge has ordered Mariusz Lekarczyk, the owner and operator of four Chicago-area We Wash Hand Wash and Car Detail Centers, and We Wash Car Care Center Inc. to pay $799,566 in back wages and damages to 110 employees and $110,990 in penalties to the U.S. Department of Labor, as part of a consent judgment and order obtained by the department.
On September 19, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago ordered Lekarczyk and his company to pay the back wages owed by May 1, 2025 and penalties by August 1, 2025. The employer must immediately display posters and provide information to employees about their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The court’s action was spurred by the filing of a complaint in district court after an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division discovered Lekarczyk did not pay workers overtime at time and one-half their regular rate of pay for hours over 40 in a workweek or keep records of payments to workers, as required. The division found violations at the company’s Chicago locations at 2042 S. Halsted St. and 4660 W. Lawrence Ave. from at least June 23, 2020, to June 22, 2022, and at their 2744 Skokie Valley Road, Highland Park and 5600 New Wilke Road, Rolling Meadows locations between Oct. 21, 2020, and Oct. 20, 2022.
The complaint alleges Lekarczyk and his company paid workers by check for the first 40 hours they worked, then paid for overtime hours in cash at straight time without the overtime rates.
The Halsted and Lawrence locations were previously investigated by the division in 2013, where similar overtime violations were found.
“The recovery of these rightfully earned wages will have a tremendous impact on the employees who earned them and sends a clear message to all employers that we will not tolerate an employer’s failure to pay overtime,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Tom Gauza in Chicago. “We appreciate the court’s support in the Department of Labor’s fight on behalf of workers and in holding employers legally accountable.”
“The U.S. Department of Labor will take all necessary legal actions – including recovering back wages, seeking damages and assessing penalties – to hold employers who violate the law accountable,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Z. Heri in Chicago.
The department’s compliance guide explains employees’ rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.