Federal authorities have won roughly $830,000 in back pay for more than 100 workers from four Mexican restaurants in southern Minnesota and Iowa operating as a single enterprise after finding that the owners violated various labor laws.
U.S. Labor Department investigators said the violations involved numerous schemes by the restaurants in Redwood Falls, Mankato and New Ulm, Minn., and Mason City, Iowa, to short their workers' pay.
Janete Alvarez Campos of New Ulm has an ownership stake in all four restaurants either as sole owner or partner. A message was left with her Thursday seeking comment about the federal findings.
"The employer has agreed to comply in the future" and to make back-pay payments by March 2020, said Scott Allen, a regional spokesman for the Labor Department.
The agreement comes under what is known as an administrative settlement and does not involve court action or any "concept of guilt or innocence," Allen said.
Among the tactics employed to the detriment of the workers, according to investigators:
• Some servers had to "kick back" their hourly wages to their employer and work solely for tips.
• Bussers, food runners, cooks and dishwashers were paid flat salaries regardless of how many hours they worked, leaving them short of the federally required $7.25 minimum hourly wage and, at times, depriving them of overtime pay.
