Chinese Restaurant Owners Pay Up for Wage & Hour Violations

The parent company, H&WH Inc. — which does business as China Inn Cafe — had paid cooks a set salary for the past few years without any regard as to how many hours they worked or how many days they worked, according to the wage and hour lawsuit. This resulted in cooks being paid less than $7.25 an hour — less than minimum wage.

Before the federal investigation took place, the chefs often worked overtime but did not get compensated for it, resulting in some of the labor violations. China Inn Cafe employees normally worked 66 hours per week on average, according to the wage and hour lawsuit. Restaurant drivers and wait staff were also deprived of overtime pay and failed to maintain accurate payment and time records, which it required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

To be in accordance with the FLSA, an employer of a tipped employee is required to pay no less than $2.13 an hour in direct wages, assuming that the amount combined with the tips is equivalent or greater than federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. If the amount is less, than the employer must make up the difference. Furthermore, only certain circumstances exempt employers from paying overtime. These include:

• Auto, truck, trailer, farm implement, boat, or aircraft salespersons employed by non-manufacturing establishments 
• Auto, truck, or farm implement parts-clerks and mechanics employed by non-manufacturing establishment
• Railroad and air carrier employees, taxi drivers, certain employees of motor carriers, seamen on American vessels, and local delivery employees paid on approved trip rate
• Announcers, news editors, and chief engineers of some non-metropolitan broadcasting stations
• Domestic service workers who reside in employers’ residences
• Employees of motion picture theaters
• Farm workers