Restaurants paid servers no wages, failed to pay others required overtime
ORLANDO, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $253,044 in back wages for 93 workers of four Florida restaurants after an investigation found the enterprise did not pay servers any wages and failed to pay other workers overtime rates.
The recovery follows a federal consent order entered by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando on Nov. 18, 2022, that mandates the four restaurants and owner Juan Zarinana to pay the back wages to the affected employees, and forbid them from future violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined the four restaurants failed to pay tipped employees a cash wage for any of the hours they worked, requiring them to rely only on customers’ tips for income.
By law, an employer of a tipped employee must pay at least a $2.13 per hour cash wage if that amount – combined with the tips received – equals at least the federal minimum wage. If the workers’ tips and the employer’s direct wages do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer is required to make up the difference. In Florida, however, the higher direct wage amount for tipped employees is $7.98 per hour.
Investigators also found the employer paid workers straight time for all hours regardless of how many they worked and denied them the additional half-time rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. By doing so,...
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