Well yes I was bragging. I was pretty proud that I got it cut in half after an attorney told me to just pay the full amount that (he was a labor lawyer) he didn't think they would budge. So yes I was proud that I did that but more importantly wanted to point out that it was possible, at least then in that particular office. In business sometimes just knowing something is possible can enable you to try.
"except that the money that you managed to owe them less than half of what the DOL originally figured"
Well as a business person of course I'm going to try and minimize the dollars owed. But further to the employees it was essentially found money they didn't have an issue (other than the one employee who did apparently) in the first place.
The company was about 20 employees. This happened over the course of a few years. It involved the fact (from memory) that you didn't have to give employees (of this type) any breaks but if you did give them breaks they had to be 15 or 20 minutes (don't remember).
So here is the scenario (for this type of employee).
You work and you don't get any breaks. - Ok says the DOL
You work and you get, say, 20 minutes break. - Ok says the DOL.
You work and you get, say, 15 minutes break. - No says the DOL must be 20 minutes you owe them pay for the 15 minutes they weren't working.
Only thing I don't remember is if it was 15 minutes needed or 20 minutes. The point is we were off by 5 minutes so we owed back pay for that.
So once again breaks weren't required but if you give them they have to be of a certain length. And it had nothing to do with a job description that generally referenced breaks either. No mention was made of breaks when hiring. And they didn't have to take breaks either.