They’re known affectionately as the “DQ Sisters” — Patty DeMint and Michelle Robey, siblings who pooled their money to fulfill their dream of opening a Dairy Queen franchise in Meaford, New York, in 2017.
In the beginning it was all soft serve and sprinkles as the pair fostered a beloved community hub while going above and beyond for their employees — anything from offering money in times of need to delivering Christmas presents to their workers’ children. They also earned a reputation for hiring locals looking for a second chance.
“Whether you are a felon, whether you are misplaced, whether you are 80 years old, whether you are 14 years old,” DeMint told CBS News (1), “everyone needs a place to call home as far as a job goes.”
But then, in 2019, the ice cream hub hit a rocky road when a former employee filed a lawsuit against the sisters for violating a vague, Depression-era New York state law. Suddenly, DeMint and Robey faced a $6 million lawsuit that threatened to bankrupt them and shutter their shop.
New York’s Frequency of Pay law (2) requires “manual workers” to receive their pay on a weekly basis. It’s a law that the sisters said they’d never heard of, which is why they paid their employees biweekly — a process that they said was never flagged by anyone, including during an audit conducted by the state’s Department of Labor.
Robey told CBS that the lawsuit was “ridiculous,” adding, “we knew we paid every employee every dime that they were owed.” But her sister noted that the former employee, who’d been laid off, “would say all the time, ‘I’m gonna get you, I’m gonna get you,’ and she did.”
Ultimately, the lawsuit, which included accusations of withholding wages and overtime pay, became part of a trend of lawsuits against New York businesses, according to CBS, filed by law firms that solicited, through ads on social media, claimants who were paid biweekly.
Labor lawyer Howard Wexler told the news outlet that the lawsuits “took what was a law that required you to pay your employees weekly into more of a ‘gotcha’ based on technical violation.”
The sisters, who worried that they may lose their business and possibly their homes as a result of the lawsuit, ended up settling out of court for $450,000. Yet, after lawyers took their share, former employees only collected about $200 each, reported CBS.
“The lawyers structured it so they would get 1/3 of the larger payment,” Robey told Trihamlet News (3).
“The employees are getting pennies on the dollar, which is further proof that these lawsuits don’t help the employees, they help the lawyers.”
An employee who works with the DQ Sisters has set up a GoFundMe (4) to help support them, noting that they created a “true second chance company” and became “surrogate mothers when life gets tough” for their workers.
Meanwhile, the DQ Sisters stepped up, helping protect other small business owners from having to deal with a similar nightmare by successfully working with state lawmakers to change the law. As of May, businesses who pay workers biweekly, would only be on the hook for interest owed on the ‘late’ wages — a far cry from the sisters’ multimillion payout.
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The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is meant to ensure fair pay, overtime compensation and proper employment conditions for workers in the United States. Still, despite the FLSA, organizations like Working America — an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations — warn that “If your paycheck doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t” (5). And that’s not hyperbole.
A 2024 report from the Economic Policy Institute found that government antiwage theft efforts recovered more than $1.5 billion dollars in stolen wages for American workers in only a two-year period, between 2021 and 2023 (6). “Wage theft,” they say, “is pervasive across all industries and income levels in the country.”
That’s why Working America recommends keeping a close eye on your pay stub and immediately reporting any discrepancies to your employer to ensure it’s corrected in a timely manner.
They also suggest keeping your own records of all the hours you put in on the job — and even, if you’re comfortable doing so, asking your boss to regularly sign it, thus verifying it — and consulting with fellow employees, human resources and even legal representation if you experience consistent shortages in your wages.
Employers, meanwhile, should make themselves aware of the various federal, state and local payroll laws to avoid what ADP describes as “penalties that could negatively affect their bottom line or even put them out of business” (7).
The payroll and HR firm notes that common employer payroll mistakes often revolve around the misclassification of employees and contractors as well as errors involving workers’ compensation and failing to comply with the Equal Pay Act.
Staying on top of the issue by using tools like payroll software and compliance checklists can, they add, “help avoid tax trouble and maintain positive workforce morale.”
Others experts suggest ensuring that employees are clear about policies for wages and overtime, keeping accurate and up-to-date payroll records and implementing training sessions to ensure all employees and managers understand company payroll policies, completely.
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CBS News (1); New York State Department of Labor (2); Trihamlet News (3); GoFundMe (4); Working America (5); Economic Policy Institute (6); ADP (7)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
