Not Exactly "Pennies From Heaven"

 File under, "Petty Bosses:"

The Georgia autoshop owner who in 2022 paid one of this employees his final wage by dumping 91,500 oil-covered pennies in his driveway has been ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $40,000 in additional back wages and damages to his employees, court records show.

Miles Walker, owner of A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia was ordered to pay back wages in the total amount of $19,967.09, plus liquidated damages in the amount of $19,967.09, the consent judgement shows.

Last year, the US Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Walker for violating federal labor law, after he retaliated against a former employee who contacted the agency when he didn’t receive his final paycheck. He eventually paid the ex-employee, named Andreas Flaten, with roughly 90,000 pennies and a note expressing a short expletive.

Flaten quit his job at A OK after an argument with his boss and contacted the Labor Department in January 2021 to say he was owed $915. The next day, Walker received a call from the department, and said he would not pay Flaten. Hours later, he decided to pay him in pennies.