Walmart has turned itself in to the Labor Department for paying too little in overtime pay over the last 5 years. From MSN:

Steven Mandel, associate solicitor in the U.S. Labor Department’s Fair Labor Standards Division, said the case — involving nearly 87,000 employees nationwide — resulted from Wal-Mart coming to the department in early 2005 and asking for a review of its overtime calculations.

“They had some concern that some of the practices were not in compliance” with federal wage laws, he told a conference call for reporters

“It’s not particularly unusual for an employer to come to us and talk to us about potential payroll violations,” Mandel said.

But Mandel said the overtime settlement was one of the largest ever reached by the department’s wage and hour division….

The settlement was approved Thursday by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for western Arkansas, Mandel said.

The highest award to an individual employee was about $39,000, he said.

Last October, workers in Pennsylvania sued over working through breaks and off the clock and were awarded $78 million. Walmart is appealing that judgment. —MEGHANN MARCO

Walmart to Pay $33mil in OT Case [MSN]

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