(a) Any employer or his agent, or the officer or agent of any corporation, who discharges or in any other manner discriminates against any employee because such employee has testified or is about to testify in any investigation or proceeding under or related to this part, or because such employer believes that such employee may testify in any investigation or proceeding under this part, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than four hundred dollars.

(b) Any employer or the officer or agent of any corporation who pays or agrees to pay to any employee less than the rates applicable to such employee under the provisions of this part or a minimum fair wage order shall be: (1) Guilty of a class D felony, except that such employer, officer or agent shall be fined not less than four thousand nor more than ten thousand dollars for each offense if the total amount of all unpaid wages owed to an employee is more than two thousand dollars; (2) fined not less than two thousand nor more than four thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, for each offense if the total amount of all unpaid wages owed to an employee is more than one thousand dollars but not more than two thousand dollars; (3) fined not less than one thousand nor more than two thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than six months, or both, for each offense if the total amount of all unpaid wages owed to an employee is more than five hundred but not more than one thousand dollars; or (4) fined not less than four hundred nor more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than three months, or both, for each offense if the total amount of all unpaid wages owed to an employee is five hundred dollars or less.

(c) Any employer, his officer or agent, or the officer or agent of any corporation, firm or partnership, who fails to keep the records required under this part or by regulation made in accordance with this part or to furnish such records to the commissioner or any authorized representative of the commissioner, upon request, or who refuses to admit the commissioner or his authorized representative to his place of employment or who hinders or delays the commissioner or his authorized representative in the performance of his duties in the enforcement of this part shall be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, and each day of such failure to keep the records required under this part or to furnish the same to the commissioner or any authorized representative of the commissioner shall constitute a separate offense, and each day of refusal to admit or of hindering or delaying the commissioner or his authorized representative shall constitute a separate offense.

(d) Nothing in this part shall be deemed to interfere with, impede or in any way diminish the right of employees to bargain collectively with their employers through representatives of their own choosing in order to establish wages or conditions of work in excess of the applicable minimum under this part.

(1949 Rev., S. 3795; 1951, S. 2033d; 1959, P.A. 683, S. 6; P.A. 93-392, S. 3; P.A. 97-263, S. 18; P.A. 13-140, S. 15; 13-258, S. 97.)

History: 1959 act added failure to keep records required by regulation to penalty provision; P.A. 93-392 amended Subsec. (b) to increase the maximum fine and prison term for nonpayment of minimum or overtime wages from $200 and 90 days to $5,000 and five years, and to allow for the imposition of varying fines and prison terms based on the amount of wages owed by an employer; P.A. 97-263 doubled the amount of all fines in Subsecs. (a), (b) and (c); P.A. 13-140 amended Subsec. (a) by deleting provisions re employee serving on or testifying before a wage board, effective June 18, 2013; P.A. 13-258 amended Subsec. (b) to substitute provision re class D felony for provision re imprisonment of not more than 5 years in Subdiv. (1) and to make technical changes.

Failure to keep records not material when court finds number of hours worked in action between employer and employee. 140 C. 73. Cited. 223 C. 573.

Cited. 10 CS 171.