Labor department sues mortgage broker over back pay

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against a mortage broker with local operations, alleging the company owes at least 200 loan officers more than $239,000 in back pay.

Ohio-based Alliance Mortgage Group Inc. and Credit Financial Services did not pay its overtime-eligible loan officers properly, providing only a monthly commission and in some cases wages that were lower than the federal minimum wage, the department's Wage and Hour division said in a statement.

Fifty-one of the 211 employees listed in the complaint are from Alliance Mortgage's South Florida locations in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Aventura. Payments owed the local employees ranged from more than $150 to almost $2,150, according to the complaint.

A call to the company's Mason, Ohio headquarters for comment was not immediately returned.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, the basis of much employment law in the U.S., requires that such workers be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and time-and-a-half for any hours worked after the 40-hour work week.

The complaint was filed in U.S. federal court in Ohio.