Wal-Mart agrees to back pay

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed to pay more than $3.9 million to about 50,000 current and former employees in California who were underpaid overtime and other wages, the state’s labor commissioner said Tuesday.

The world’s largest retailer also agreed to pay $198,900 in civil penalties to California, Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet said.

In 2005, Wal-Mart voluntarily notified the labor commissioner that errors in its payroll processes had led to underpayment of overtime and other wages. It pledged to correct the problem and pay affected workers all they owed.

Wal-Mart officials were not immediately available for comment.

The payment errors affected all of Wal-Mart’s California workers from Feb. 1, 2002, through Jan. 19, 2007.

Many of the affected employees have already received checks for overtime and interest, and the remaining payments will be issued within 45 days, the labor commissioner said.

Bradstreet said Wal-Mart “set a positive example for other employers who may be out of compliance because it illustrates how they can work with us to properly compensate workers as well as meet legal requirements.”