KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Three Kalamazoo-area restaurants under joint ownership have been ordered to pay $225,000 in back wages to 82 employees after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) found minimum wage and overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
In a consent judgment, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan has ordered the three restaurants and Francisco Hernandez, Felipe Ortiz, Rosa Bravo, Juan Carlos Ortiz and Marcos Macias Jr., the restaurants’ owners, to pay the back wages after a WHD investigation. Investigators say they found found minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping violations at Los Amigos of Kalamazoo Inc., and Los Amigos Grill Inc., operating as Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant, both located in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and at Riviera Maya Inc., operating as Riviera Maya Bar and Grill in Portage, Michigan.
Wage and Hour Division District Director Mary O’Rourke in Grand Rapids says they found the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying employees fixed salaries, regardless of the number of hours that they worked. The practice resulted in violations when those salaries failed to cover minimum wage for all the hours employees worked, and when they failed to pay overtime when those hours exceeded 40 in a workweek.
Federal officials say the employer also failed to record any earnings for tipped employees or pay tipped employees overtime when they worked more than 40 hours per week. Additionally, the employer failed to maintain records of the number of hours employees worked, and the amounts paid to employees.
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