The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has recovered USD 732,976 (EUR 631,301) in lost wages for restaurant workers at a Florida seafood restaurant after an investigation revealed the company had not been paying them their full wages.
In a 3 September release, the department said its Wage and Hour Division investigators discovered that Lucky King LLC – operating as Miyako Japanese Buffet in Pompano Beach, Florida, U.S.A. – failed to pay the minimum wage or maintain federally required records, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“Federal recordkeeping regulations require employers to keep records for each employee covered by the FLSA, including identification details, hours worked, and the wages earned,” the department said in its announcement.
According to the department, Lucky LLC paid most of its employees a monthly salary ranging between USD 1,000 and USD 3,000 (EUR 861 and EUR 2,584). However, employees typically worked more than 40 hours per week, meaning they were being paid less than the minimum wage. The DOL noted that the employer did not calculate how much time employees had worked before paying them.
In response, DOL recovered USD 732,976 in unpaid wages for 31 individuals who worked at the seafood restaurant.
