(This originally appeared on WYFF4.com)
A restaurant chain in Greenville, South Carolina, will have to pay employees back pay after the Department of Labor said the company denied overtime pay.
Updated: 1:54 PM EDT Jun 2, 2023
By: Stephanie Moore, Digital Media Manager
A restaurant chain in Greenville, South Carolina, will have to pay employees back pay after the Department of Labor said the company denied overtime pay.
(Video above: Morning headlines from WYFF News 4)
Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Tipsy Holding II LLC failed to pay the half-time premium to cooks, servers and bar employees for hours over 40 in a workweek, an overtime violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The employer also failed to keep accurate records for workers, DOL says.
The Department said they recovered $567,079 for 215 workers at the following locations:
215 Pelham Rd., Greenville, SC 29615
15 Conestee Ave., Greenville, SC 29605
728 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville, SC 29609
102 Southern Center Way, Easley, SC 29642
14180 E. Wade Hampton Blvd., Greer, SC 29651
702 Fairview Rd., Simpsonville, SC 29680
“As food service industry employers struggle to find people to fill the jobs needed to remain competitive, they should remember that keeping and finding workers is harder for employers who don’t respect workers’ rights and shortchange them of their full wages,” said Wage and Hour Division district director Jamie Benefiel in Columbia, South Carolina. “Overtime violations are common in the restaurant industry, but they shouldn’t be. There are more than enough resources available to employers to help them understand their obligations to employees under the law.”
Workers who feel they may not be getting the wages they earned may contact a Wage and Hour Division representative in their state through a list and interactive online map on the agency’s website. Workers and employers alike can help track hours worked and pay by downloading the department’s Timesheet App for Android or Apple devices for free.