Federal investigators have recovered $697,295 in back wages for 60 current and former employees of Tank Noodle, an Uptown Vietnamese restaurant.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division said it found that the restaurant owed some workers more than $10,000 each in back wages and identified violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Tank Noodle was notified of the violations Oct. 14 and agreed on Dec. 7 to pay the back wages.
The restaurant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This investigation recovered a considerable amount of back wages for 60 employees in an industry whose essential workers are often among the lowest paid in our society,” Thomas Gauza, district director of the wage and hour division, said in a news release.
Investigators found that some servers at the restaurant worked only for tips and were not paid direct wages, which the law requires. Some workers also were paid flat amounts each day, regardless of the number of hours they worked, and didn’t receive overtime when their workweek exceeded 40 hours, according to the news release. The agency found that Tank Noodle had not kept accurate records on the hours employees worked.
In addition, Tank Noodle pooled all the tips received each day and divided them evenly among the staff, including managers, according to the news release. The Fair Labor Standards Act does not permit management to be involved in tip pooling arrangements.
