DOL gives North Carolina restaurant a tip - Pay your workers properly

Employees of Los Tres Magueyes in Cary, North Carolina, will receive the wages they were allegedly owed as the result of their employer's time and attendance violations, according to the Department of Labor. A recent investigation the Wage and Hour Division revealed that servers were not properly paid all the wages they were owed, especially for overtime work.

"We found many low-wage employees working up to 50 hours a week without any overtime compensation and receiving pay below the federal minimum wage," said Richard Blaylock, director of the division's Raleigh District Office. "The money recovered for these low-wage workers often goes to cover basic needs, which may otherwise have gone unmet."

The investigation revealed servers were paid an hourly rate for employee attendance up to 40 hours in a single workweek in addition to their tips, but they only earned gratuity for additional time on the clock. Moreover, the report unveiled a number of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations, including a failure to keep records of youth employees' birth dates and mistaking kitchen staff members as exempt workers because they were paid on a salary basis.

To alleviate these issues, Los Tres Magueyes has agreed to pay 13 employees a total of $145,636 in back wages.