
Little Italy restaurant in Kissimmee, FL to pay over $40,000
due in part to Time clock record keeping violations of the FLSA.
It is problem industry wide; servers and cooks paid straight time for hours
worked that qualify for overtime. It’s not uncommon for restaurants to attempt
to use ignorance of the law to skirt FLSA claiming that they are in compliance
by paying 80 hours in a two-week period as opposed to 40 hour in one week which
is the law.
This is a bigger issue for tipped employees as the adjustment in time paid
across pay weeks caused several employees to fall below the required minimum wage.
The problem is so prolific that several law firms have opened specializing in
restaurant employee law. One firm in
“Violations like these are far too common in the restaurant industry,” said
Daniel White, district director of the DOL wage and hour division in
Had Little Italy maintain required time clock and payroll records, by
implementing an electronic time clock system or another time clock device, the
overtime would have been automatically calculated correctly, and minimum wage requirements
would have been met.