Midlands vape chain cheated employees out of thousands in pay, US government says

A large vaping franchise in the Columbia area was forced to pay employees tens of thousands of dollars by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Planet Vapor committed minimum wage and overtime pay violations, and shortchanged employees money, according to the federal government’s investigation.

The vaping enterprise was forced to pay $66,410 in back wages to 20 employees for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, the government said.

Planet Vapor bills itself as “the largest and most comprehensive chain of vape shops” in the Midlands. It has five retail stores — in Columbia, Lexington, West Columbia, and Irmo — where multiple flavors of e-liquids and other vaping products are sold, along with a laboratory warehouse.

Kevin Moore, the owner of Planet Vapor, told The State another person involved in the business was responsible for the violations. He declined to identify the person.

The extent of the problems was not fully discovered until Moore said he hired forensic accountants, who turned information over to the Department of Labor.

The Department of Labor found some of the Planet Vapor store managers were paid a flat weekly salary, according to the department’s wage and hour division. Its investigation revealed that when those salaries were divided by the number of hours worked, they failed to reach the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

Some managers and lab employees were inaccurately classified as exempt from overtime, but they did not meet the requirements to be exempt, causing more violations when they worked more than 40 hours per week without overtime pay, the government said.

In instances where it did pay overtime, Planet Vapor didn’t always include commissions and bonuses in some employees’ regular rates of pay when calculating their overtime rates, causing them to receive a salary lower than required by law, according to the Department of Labor.

Additionally, the investigation showed Planet Vapor violated the record keeping requirements when it failed to maintain accurate time and payroll records.

Moore said only half of the $66,410 was actually owed to the employees, and the other half was a fine.

In the wake of the investigation, Moore said he has hired good accountants and a human resources person to make sure everything is being done right. Another change he said that has been made is switching all employees from being on salary to being paid by the hour.

All issues with the government have been resolved and everyone owed money has been paid, Moore said.

“I’ve learned something, but that was very costly,” Moore said.

The government said it wants to help business owners from making mistakes.

“The U.S. Department of Labor remains committed to ensuring employees receive all the wages they have rightfully earned,” said Jamie Benefiel, the wage and hour district director in Columbia. “Employers must be aware of their responsibilities under the law, make sure to calculate their employees’ pay correctly and apply any overtime exemptions accurately.”

Moore said he wants to clear Planet Vapor’s name and “run a 100 percent legal business.”

“I want to make things right.”

This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 12:21 PM.

Noah Feit

The State

803-771-8435

Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription