2 El Paso restaurants to pay nearly $73,000 to workers following federal investigation
El Paso-based Vivar’s Villa Del Mar has agreed to pay $72,709 in minimum and overtime back wages to 116 current and former servers at two restaurants in El Paso following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which found systemic violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
“Investigators found illegal and exploitative practices that deprived workers of the wages they rightfully earned,” said Cynthia Watson, regional administrator of the Wage and Hour Division in the Southwest. “The department is committed to ensuring that all workers are fully paid for every hour they spend on the job and employers comply with the FLSA.”
The investigation by the division’s Albuquerque District Office revealed that servers were not paid the minimum wage for all hours worked, according to a news release.
They also were not paid the difference in cash when their tips plus their base hourly rates did not total at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and the required overtime rate of time and one-half was paid based only on the tipped employees’ cash wages rather than the full minimum wage.
Additionally, one employee who worked as a busser as well as a server did not receive overtime during weeks in which he worked more than 40 hours between both jobs. Finally, required record keeping was not maintained.
Villa Del Mar has agreed to comply fully with the FLSA in the future.
For more information about the FLSA and other federal wage laws, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or the division’s Albuquerque office at 505-248-6100. Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.
