The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $169,728 in wages and penalties after an investigation found that a string of restaurants in Oregon reportedly withheld wages, tips and overtime.
The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division found that the operators of KKOKI Korean BBQ restaurants in Portland, Eugene and Salem, Ore., withheld tips earned by workers, allowed managers to take a portion workers’ tips and paid overtime only when workers exceeded 86 hours per pay period instead of after 40, as the Fair Labor Standards Act requires. The employer also failed to keep accurate employee records, the investigation found.
“Restaurant industry workers are paid some of the country’s lowest wages, yet many put themselves at risk throughout the pandemic to serve their customers and help employers keep their businesses open,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Carrie Aguilar of the Labor Department’s Portland office said in a Feb. 28 news release. “Wage theft, like that found in this case, hurts these essential workers and their families. Business owners must understand that violations can limit their ability to recruit and retain the people who do these jobs.”
The news release emphasized that the goal of the department is to enforce laws that protect workers and to hold “unscrupulous employers accountable.” In addition to the $84,864 in back wages the division collected, it also assessed $30,199 in penalties, the release stated.
During fiscal year 2021, the division conducted more than 4,000 investigations and recovered $34.7 million in back wages for more than 29,000 workers, the release stated.
