LinkedIn has reached an agreement to pay $6m (£3.6m) in wages and damages after it was found by regulators that its employees were paid lesser than the hours they actually worked for. Now, 359 former and current employees will be paid by the company, with $3.3m in unpaid wages and $2.5m in damages.

The company has also agreed to provide compliance training to applicable staff. The firm said right talent has always been the matter of paramount importance for it. A small subset of the company's sale force was not paid properly for the hours they worked for because of not having the right tools to precisely track their working hours, said Shannon Stubo, vice-president of corporate communications at LinkedIn.

The US Department of Labor has revealed that the employees in question worked at the firm's offices in California, Illinois, Nebraska and New York. "Off the clock hours are all too common for the American worker. This practice harms workers, denies them the wages they have rightfully earned and takes away time with families", said Susana Blanco, of the US Labor Department.

The regulator has, however, admired LinkedIn for cooperating with the investigation and agreeing to make every effort to prevent future violations.

David Weil, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, said the company has set a brilliant example for others to learn how flaws can be removed by cooperating with investigators, which ultimately proves beneficial for workers.

The company has won the heart by also promising commitment to take positive and practical steps to ensure future compliance, added Weil.