Interactive Brokers Settles Wage Lawsuit for $1.8M

Interactive Brokers will pay $1.8M to settle a wage lawsuit alleging misclassification and unpaid overtime for customer support staff.

Key Points:

• Settlement covers nearly 300 former customer support employees misclassified as exempt.
• Court order approves $10K for each plaintiff and one-third of funds for attorneys’ fees.

Interactive Brokers LLC has agreed to pay $1.825 million to settle a wage and hour lawsuit brought by former customer support employees who alleged the company misclassified them and denied them overtime pay.

The Illinois Northern District Court received a proposed order approving the settlement. The agreement covers claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and seeks to resolve the case on a collective-wide basis.

Interactive Brokers Settles Wage Lawsuit for $1.8M

Former employees Tyree Thomas, Jake Cirame, and Mark Alberts led the lawsuit, claiming Interactive Brokers misclassified customer support workers as exempt employees, failed to pay overtime, and neglected to keep accurate time records. The plaintiffs alleged they routinely worked more than 40 hours per week without additional compensation.

Court filings show that Thomas worked for the company between 2017 and 2022 and averaged up to 50 hours per week. Cirame worked from 2021 to 2022, averaging 43 hours per week, while Alberts worked from 2010 to 2021, averaging 48 hours per week. According to the complaint, the employees often skipped meal breaks, eating at their desks while continuing to handle customer service issues by phone or chat.

The settlement order approves several key provisions:

• A $1,825,000 Gross Settlement Fund to cover payments to up to 298 eligible employees.
• A $10,000 general release payment to each of the three named plaintiffs.
• One-third of the settlement fund allocated to attorneys’ fees.
• Dismissal of the case with prejudice.

The settlement fund also accounts for opt-in plaintiffs, court-approved payments, and administrative fees.

Under the FLSA, employees are entitled to overtime pay at one-and-a-half times their hourly rate for work exceeding 40 hours per week. The plaintiffs argued Interactive Brokers violated this requirement through a policy of misclassification.

The proposed order describes the settlement as “fair, adequate, and reasonable.” If approved, it will bring closure to years of litigation and provide significant monetary relief to former employees.

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