Virginia Area Restaurants to Pay $3M in Back Wages and Damages to Workers

Six Roanoke, Virginia area restaurants and their owners will pay $1.5 million in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, to 149 employees for Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations. The settlement, which was entered into in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, is a result of a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation. 

The Department of Labor’s investigation found that the restaurants willfully violated FLSA minimum wage and overtime provisions by only compensating servers through tips and not paying the federal minimum wage at one-and-one-half their regular rates of pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The restaurants also paid non-exempt kitchen staff – cooks, assistant cooks, and dishwashers – straight time for the overtime hours they worked. Investigators also found the restaurants violated the worker’s rights by failing to keep and maintain accurate records of the hours employees worked as required. 

“This resolution secures proper compensation for these hard-working employees, and helps ensure that the law will be followed in the future,” said a representative for the Department of Labor. “The agreement recovers wages owed to employees for work performed years ago,” commented another representative.  “The outcome in this case positively impacts voluntary compliance in the food service industry in Virginia, and will level the competitive playing field for employers that comply with the law.”