Georgetown University will pay up to $550,000 to resolve allegations that it illegally required staff working in a research setting to work unpaid overtime, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said Tuesday.
Under the agreement, Georgetown will establish a fund through which workers can claim wages they are legally owed and, going forward, will pay the appropriate overtime to all nonexempt employees.
“Workers in academic research settings are often pressured by supervisors to work off-the-clock overtime, a practice that is illegal and unfair,” Schwalb said. “The Office of Attorney General will continue to vigorously enforce our wage-and-hour laws across all industries in order to protect all workers, and I encourage anyone who feels they are not being paid, on time and in full, what they have earned to file a complaint through our workers’ rights tipline.”
The attorney general’s office got the complaint through the tipline in March 2022. Essentially, staffers told the office through a survey that they were required to perform work for the Georgetown University Medical Center and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences uncompensated from March 2020 to the present.
The survey revealed that 46% of 102 respondents said they worked uncompensated overtime, with a median amount of unpaid overtime reported per employee of $2,160.
To remedy the situation, the university will pay $500,000 in overtime claims to workers, pay $50,000 to the District to cover investigation costs, disburse overtime to all nonexempt workers going forward, provide employees with training that explains what they are entitled to, and give director supervisors of hourly staff employees with training regarding their underlings pay.
