After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the owners of a chain of Pennsylvania bar and grill restaurants have paid $750,007 in back wages and liquidated damages. In a settlement agreement with the Department, Arooga’s Grille House and Sports Bar agreed to pay current and former servers, cooks, and assistant kitchen managers in York, Camp Hill, Lower Paxton, Mechanicsburg, Hanover and Harrisburg for minimum wages and overtime not paid to them over a 30-month period. The 1,039 employees will receive $375,003 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.

“Employees depend on receiving the wages they have rightfully earned,” said Alfonso Gristina, Wage and Hour Division Wilkes-Barre District Office Director. “We encourage all employers to make use of the many tools we provide to help them understand and comply with the law, and to call us for assistance.”

“We will vigorously enforce the law to level the playing field for companies that play by the rules and to safeguard employees’ hard-earned wages,” said Regional Solicitor Oscar L. Hampton III. “We are hopeful that settlements like this one will call attention to such violations and remind other employers that they must comply with the law.”

Investigators in WHD’s Wilkes-Barre district office found Arooga’s violated the Fair Labor Standards Act as follows when the employer failed to pay:

• Tipped employees the federal minimum wage when deductions for cash drawer shortages, walk outs, and order mistakes reduced their wages to below $7.25 per hour;
• Employees for all of the hours that they worked, resulting in overtime violations for servers who worked an estimated 65-70 hours per week;
• Cooks overtime when they worked an estimated 65 hours per week, paying them only straight time; and
• Assistant kitchen managers overtime after erroneously categorizing them as exempt from overtime.

The FLSA requires that employers pay covered, nonexempt employees at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time-and-one-half their regular rates of pay, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week.

The FLSA requires an employer of a tipped employee to pay no less than $2.13 an hour in direct wages, provided that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages do not equal at least the minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference.