Tell Us More About Wage Theft

by Dr. Arcelita Imasa

In some of your recent columns, you mentioned wage theft. Can you tell us more about it?
– Reader

Dear Reader,

Wage theft is the failure of an employer to pay employees what they have legitimately earned.

It can take many forms, including but not limited to unpaid overtime, minimum wage violations, misclassified employees, tip stealing, and payments of wages in cash to avoid taxes.

This unethical and illegal practice poses a significant threat to workers, particularly low-wage, non-unionized, and immigrant/migrant laborers.

In Hawaiʻi and elsewhere, wage theft remains a widespread and critical issue. In February of this year, the Department of Labor (DOL) recovered $134,000 in tips, overtime wages, and damages from Maui L&L’s for “willfully” committing wage theft.

And recently, a DOL investigation found that the owners of two Max’s of Manila Restaurants in Honolulu and Waipahu did not pay kitchen staff the required overtime rates for hours over 40 in a workweek, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Hawai’i Workers Center uncovered these violations and helped Max’s workers organize and pursue justice through the DOL.

Max’s paid kitchen employees a fixed salary and excluded them from overtime pay regardless of how many hours they worked.

DOL investigators also found the employer unlawfully allowed a manager to take a portion of tips. Federal law forbids employers or managers from keeping employees’ tips for any purpose.

Twenty-three Max’s workers recovered $153,885 in overtime wages, an additional $153,885 in liquidated damages for 23 employees, and $8,418 in civil money penalties for the reckless nature of the violations.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division District Director Terence Trotter in Honolulu stated, “Many restaurant employers in Hawaii and elsewhere in the nation continue to shortchange workers and deprive them of their hard-earned wages.”

Adding to this injury, the type of visa used to recruit some of Max’s workers resulted in long separations from their families, in one instance, 14 years. This is absolutely tragic!

We urge all workers to know your rights. Read our column and learn more about your rights by contacting the Hawai’i Workers Center at phone number (503)967-5377 or (503)WORKERS) or at nelson@hawaiiworkerscenter.org.

Check out our website, www.hawaiiworkerscenter.org. Employers and workers can also contact the Wage and Hour Division for assistance at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including the agency’s restaurant compliance assistance toolkit and an overview of the FLSA protections for restaurant workers.

Workers and employers can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free.

Many of us enjoy eating a wonderful meal at Max’s. We did not know that our dollars were supporting abuse by those we prepared and served our meals.

But we can now take comfort in knowing that because of the courage of Max’s workers coming together to fight injustice with the help of the Hawai’i Workers Center and DOL, we can once again enjoy a meal knowing we are not supporting injustice.

Sincerely,
Hawaii Workers Center