{"id":22963,"date":"2024-12-23T17:28:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=805841"},"modified":"2024-12-23T17:28:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:28:03","slug":"michigan-taco-restaurant-owner-ordered-to-pay-823k-in-back-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/12\/23\/michigan-taco-restaurant-owner-ordered-to-pay-823k-in-back-wages\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Taco Restaurant Owner Ordered to Pay $823K in Back Wages"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-restaurant-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2024\/12\/23\/805841.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2024\/12\/23\/805841.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>A federal court has ordered the owner of three West Michigan taco restaurants to pay 177 workers a total of $823,326 after the court granted the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s request for summary judgment, concluding that the restaurants operated an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/agencies\/whd\/fact-sheets\/15-tipped-employees-flsa\">illegal tip pool<\/a> that led to violations of federal minimum wage and overtime regulations.<\/p>\n<p>On Nov. 5, 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/sites\/dolgov\/files\/OPA\/newsreleases\/2024\/12\/24-2351-CHI_WHD_SOL%20Barrio%20Tacos%20order.pdf\">the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan entered summary judgment against Sparty Tacos LLC in East Lansing, TC Tacos LLC in Traverse City and GR Tacos LLC in Grand Rapids<\/a> \u2013 all operating as Barrio Tacos \u2013 and owner Jacob Hawley that required the employers to pay $411,663 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"restaurant\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>The judgment resolves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/newsroom\/releases\/sol\/sol20230919\">the department\u2019s Sept. 7, 2023, complaint<\/a> prompted by an investigation by its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/agencies\/whd\">Wage and Hour Division<\/a> that alleged Fair Labor Standards Act violations by the three restaurants and Hawley.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the court found the employers:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"usa-list\">\n<li>Required tipped employees \u2013 who were paid by the employers using the tip credit \u2013 to surrender a portion of their cash and credit card tips to managers after each shift. Managers then redistributed these tips to non-tipped employees, including kitchen staff.<\/li>\n<li>Failed to pay tipped employees the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.<\/li>\n<li>Incorrectly paid tipped employees overtime based on the tip credit rate instead of the applicable minimum wage rate.<\/li>\n<li>Failed to keep accurate records of employees\u2019 hourly rates of pay and overtime wages due.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The division previously assessed Hawley and his three restaurants $23,904 in civil money penalties for the violations associated with this case. That matter is being litigated before the department\u2019s Office of Administrative Law Judges.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: Department of Labor<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/michigan\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Michigan<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"805841\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>Interested in <em>Restaurant<\/em>?<\/h4>\n<p>Get automatic alerts for this topic.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments A federal court has ordered the owner of three West Michigan taco restaurants to pay 177 workers a total of $823,326 after the court granted the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s request&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1224,1222,13,1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/michigan-taco-restaurant-owner-ordered-to-pay-823k-in-back-wages.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}