- A Mississippi restaurant paid some kitchen workers less than the minimum wage, the DOL said.
- It also failed to prove to investigators that it had paid cash wages to two servers.
- The restaurant paid $168,864 in back wages and damages to 17 workers, the DOL said.
A restaurant in Mississippi has paid nearly $169,000 to staff after a Department of Labor investigation found that kitchen workers had earned less than the minimum wage.
Super King Buffet, a Chinese and Japanese buffet in Hattiesburg, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying some kitchen employees a monthly salary that pushed their average hourly pay below the federal minimum wage, the DOL said on Tuesday.
Mississippi doesn't have a state minimum wage, and instead uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
If staff work more than 40 hours a week their employers must also pay a 50% overtime premium for these additional hours.
"Paying a worker a monthly salary does not relieve an employer from their obligation to pay their workers at least the federal minimum wage or overtime premiums, should those apply," Audrey Hall of the DOL said in a statement.
"Agreements with workers that violate pay practices governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act are illegal schemes."
The DOL said that Super King Buffet had also invalidated the tip credit it had claimed for two workers by being unable to prove that it had paid them their cash wage. Companies can pay tipped staff as little as $2.13 an hour, with tips bringing their take-home pay up to at least $7.25 an hour.
The restaurant paid a combined $168,864 in back wages and liquidated damages to 17 workers, the DOL said. Super King Buffet did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions helped drive millions of restaurant workers to quit their jobs during the pandemic.
Some restaurants have slashed their operating hours, changed their menus, and closed dining rooms or turned off online orders to cope with the staffing exodus.