NEW ULM — Plaza Garibaldi was ordered by the U.S. Department of Labor to pay $390,067 in back wages to 31 New Ulm employees.

Wednesday, a press release from the U.S. Department of Labor gave details on a completed investigation from the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), which cited three Minnesota restaurants and one northern Iowa restaurant found in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The four restaurants cited in the investigation were Plaza Garibaldi in Redwood Falls (to pay $151,269 to 30 employees), La Terraza Mexican Grill and Bar in Mankato (to pay $160,182 to 26 employees), Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant in Mason City, Iowa (to pay $129,714 to 26 employees) and Plaza Garibaldi in New Ulm.

In total, the restaurants will pay $831,232 in back wages to 113 employees. Of the four restaurants, the New Ulm location was the most impacted, with 31 impacted employees receiving $390,067 in back wages. This averages over $12,500 per New Ulm employee.

According to the press release, WHD investigators found the restaurants, in some instances, required servers to “kick back” their hourly wages and work only for tips. The employer also paid bussers, food runners, cooks and dishwashers’ flat salaries, without regard to the number of hours they worked. This practice resulted in minimum wage violations when those salaries failed to cover employees’ hours at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and in overtime violations when employees worked more than 40 hours in a work week without being paid overtime. 

Additional minimum wage violations occurred when the employers deducted the cost of uniforms from servers’ wages. The owners’ failure to record and pay workers for some of the hours that they worked resulted in additional minimum wage and overtime violations, and in recordkeeping violations.

“Employers must pay their employees the wages they have legally earned,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director David King in Minneapolis. “We encourage employers to make use of the many tools the Wage and Hour Division provides to help them understand their obligations, and to contact us for assistance.”

Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by WHD.