Karen Dulaney Smith, Wage and Hour Consultant

Reviewed the payroll practices of a large publicly-traded communications company and discovered that payroll system errors had resulted in both overpayment and underpayment of employees, developed new policies and communicated them to the IT staff to ensure that their programs captured commissions and properly included that pay in the overtime calculations

Audited pay practices for the IPO of a software company, properly classified its employees under applicable wage and hour exemptions and provided recommendations for maintaining compliance while quickly onboarding and frequently revising duties of employees to meet the needs of their rapidly expanding company

Wrote a white paper for an insurance company selling a fringe benefit plan to government contractors and trained agents on the prevailing wage requirements of federal service contracts   

Analyzed job descriptions and titles to assure that all employees were properly classified under four possible wage and hour exemptions for a regional transportation company that had acquired numerous storefronts from owners with varied pay practices

Streamlined numerous subsidiary payrolls and disparate job titles that had survived the merger and acquisition of a privately held healthcare services holding company, worked with payroll staff to uncover ongoing but hidden compliance problems caused by outdated, poorly functioning software, interviewed employees to prepare accurate job descriptions

Vetted the damage model of a retail company in litigation, discovered and rectified the errors of the client and opposing counsel’s expert that together resulted in a reduction by more than $200,000 of previously computed back wages to commission-based sales employees

Provided five-year monitoring service to a large utility during construction of a power plant, reviewed payroll and interviewed employees, provided training to staff, rectified discrepancies as they arose, vetted an established apprenticeship program

Provided three-year monitoring and on-going training of subcontractors to a large privately held retail chain, completed extensive auditing, wrote compliance policies, saw compliance status among all contractors improve 25%, moving from 70% to 95%, despite contractor turnover. 

Conducted site visits to various states where a prime contractor provided government services, audited subcontracts, worked with staff to integrate billing, time and attendance, and payroll systems to properly code work and count time, handled two wage and hour investigations of subcontractors that arose during the engagement, forestalled an erroneous request by an investigator for an unnecessary conformed rate, wrote a white paper on proper applicability of prevailing wages for construction work on a service contract