Meyer’s Family Restaurant in Greenfield has agreed to pay $116,102 in back wages to 38 employees following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that disclosed violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime pay and record-keeping provisions.
The investigation, conducted primarily in Spanish by bilingual Wage and Hour investigators, determined that Meyer’s Family Restaurant failed to compensate workers with overtime pay at time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a week, as required by the FLSA.
The company also failed to record all hours worked by employees, paid cash for some hours, and kept no record of those hours worked, the cash payments made, or the tips received. “Food Service workers often work long hours in physically demanding occupations. These workers deserve to be paid properly,” said Theresa Walls, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Minneapolis District Office. “The resolution of this case should remind employers that the department will not hesitate to investigate if they deny workers their rightful pay. We are committed to protecting the many vulnerable workers employed in the restaurant industry and will vigorously pursue violators to ensure compliance with the law.”
The company has agreed to comply with the FLSA, to pay the back wages due in full and to implement a system to monitor payroll for overtime hours in the future, according to the agency.
The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. In accordance with the FLSA, an employer of a tipped employee is required to pay no less than $2.13 an hour in direct wages, provided that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages do not equal the minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference. Employers also are required to provide employees notice of the FLSA tip credit provisions, to maintain accurate time and payroll records and to comply with the hours, hazardous orders and other restrictions applying to workers under age 18.
