A Goose Creek restaurant allowed underaged workers to put in more hours than allowed by law and neglected to appropriately pay 21 workers, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a statement.
Los Arcos Inc., which is located on St. James Avenue, has paid $108,924 in back pay, liquidated damages and miscalculated overtime, the agency’s Wage and Hour Division said.
Investigators said that the restaurant “failed to pay the workers their legally earned wages and violated minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping” under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The agency said the company did not pay some employees for actual hours worked and failed to properly calculate overtime.
Additionally, the agency’s investigators said that Los Arcos allowed two workers who were 15 years old to work more than 18 hours per week during the school year, which is a violation of a law that limits the amount of work available for a school-aged worker.
The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said that, with few exceptions, no one under 14 is allowed to work in South Carolina.
Theatrical workers and performers are allowed to be minors, and workers age 12-13 are allowed to work on farms with parental consent. If a business is 100% owned by a parent, then workers of any age are allowed, LLR said. Minors also are allowed to deliver newspapers in South Carolina.
During the school year, minors age 14-15 can work up to three hours a day with a weekly maximum of 18 hours.
In 2016, the Labor Department...
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