IBM Under Investigation Over Wages to Mexican Workers

The Labor Department is investigating whether International Business Machines Corp. violated federal wage and hour laws in its treatment of Mexican workers at a San Jose facility, a department official said Monday.

Maria Echaveste, administrator of the department’s wage and hour division, confirmed that a probe is underway. The investigation was initially reported in the San Jose Mercury News over the weekend.

Echaveste said the inquiry is less than a week old and is not yet completed.

“This is an open investigation, so I can’t give you too much about it,” Echaveste said. “We’re looking at the matter. We have to see whether in fact federal wage and hour laws have been violated.”

Echaveste said the department needed to know the type of visas held by the Mexican employees to determine whether violations occurred.

The workers, numbering fewer than 10, are employed by an IBM Mexican subsidiary based in Guadalajara, Mexico, and are working temporarily in San Jose, she said.

The Mercury News reported that the workers were being paid their Mexican wages of about $1.40 an hour.

The U.S. federal minimum wage is $4.25 an hour and will rise to $4.75 beginning today. Federal law also requires employers to pay workers time-and-a-half for working more than 40 hours a week.