The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry filed a case against two contractors on Tuesday for wage theft and unlawful practices.

During a three-year investigation of Property Maintenance and Construction LLC, Property Maintenance and Construction Inc. and Advantage Construction Inc., the DLI found “widespread wage theft and related unlawful practices on 19 separate construction projects, including the Viking Lakes project in Eagan,” according to a news release from the DLI.

The investigation found that employees of PMC and Advantage were regularly not paid wages they were due, not paid overtime and paid off the books and in cash.

The DLI also alleges that the violations were willful and PMC’s owner knew of overtime laws “while flouting them and refusing to pay workers the overtime wages they were owed,” per the release.

“It is hard for Minnesotans to afford their lives if wages are being stolen right out of their paychecks,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement applauding the action. “The scope of the wage theft that PMC and Advantage stand accused of is astonishing, and I look forward to the day they pay back every cent they owe their workers.”

Ellison’s office filed against PMC in October 2022, alleging the company and its owners hindered and delayed the DLI’s investigation. That case was resolved this September, according to Ellison’s office, “with PMC agreeing to provide DLI the information needed for their investigation, as well as to call a meeting with workers and an AGO investigator to explain that workers can participate in DLI’s investigation without fear of retaliation.”

The DLI is seeking to recover $1.2 million in wages and an additional $1.2 million in damages.

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