Tag: wage theft

Cary restaurant pays workers $ 145,000 in back wages

February 12, 2013 at 2:19 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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A Mexican restaurant in Cary agreed to pay its workers back wages it owed for skimping on overtime pay and tips.

Los Tres Magueyes paid 13 workers a total of $145,636 in money owed for unpaid overtime, tips taken from servers and hourly wages, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

The restaurant chain has several locations in the Triangle, as well as one in Danville, Va. Nell Navarro, who identified herself as one of the family member owners of the restaurant, said she had no comment on the settlement when reached by phone Tuesday afternoon at the Cary location.

Waiters and waitresses at the Cary location were paid $3.15 an hour, but only for the first 40 hours they worked, according to the labor department investigation. When working overtime, wait staff only received tips (and no wages) and had to pay $200 a week into an illegal “tip pool” that both servers and non-tipped employees had to participate in, according to the labor department news release.  Labor investigators also found kitchen staff had fixed monthly salaries, regardless of the number of hours they worked each month.

“We found many low-wage employees working up to 50 hours a week without any overtime compensation and receiving pay below the federal minimum wage,” said Richard Blaylock, the director of the agency’s wage division office in Raleigh.

Federal wage law allows restaurant servers to be paid as little as $2.13 an hour, but only when the wait staff earn enough in tips to bring the total wages to the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Employers are required to make up the difference.

Kim Bobo speaks on worker justice issues (Video)

October 2, 2012 at 10:30 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Last Thursday’s NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon featured national workers’ rights advocate Kim Bobo speaking on the large and growing problem of wage theft in the modern economy.

Click below to watch Bobo’s spirited and engaging presentation:

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Last chance to RSVP for tomorrow’s Crucial Conversation

September 26, 2012 at 10:03 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Some seats still remain for tomorrow’s NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon with national workers’ rights leader Kim Bobo.

Bobo helped coin the phrase “wage theft” for employer practices that are robbing earned income from millions of Americans and her book Wage Theft in America helped place the issue on the national radar.

Don’t miss the chance to hear from this extraordinary leader.

Click here for more information and to RSVP.

New report documents wage theft in North Carolina

September 25, 2012 at 11:11 amCategory:Uncategorized

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A new report from the N.C. Justice Center and the UNC Immigration/Human Rights Policy Clinic explores the stories of 10 typical North Carolina workers who have experienced what appears to be a growing trend in our state: wage theft (i.e. an employer’s underpayment or nonpayment of wages to workers who have earned those wages).

“While each worker’s story is unique, common themes emerged from the interviews,” said Sabine Schoenbach, a Policy Analyst with the Workers’ Rights Project at the NC Justice Center and co-author of the report. “For all participants, wage theft created economic uncertainty, and even small wage violations had significant financial consequences. Moreover, serious barriers to redress, including the threat of retaliation, existed.”

You can read the release that accompanied the report by clicking here and the full report by clicking here.

 

A study in contrasting events this Thursday

September 24, 2012 at 3:18 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Raleigh will play host to a pair of competing and very different luncheons dealing with public policy this Thursday.

We at NC Policy Watch will be hosting a Crucial Conversation with Kim Bobo, the founder and director of the national advocacy organization, Interfaith Worker Justice. Kim has been named one of Utne Reader‘s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” and helped coin the phrase “wage theft” for employer practices that are robbing earned income from millions of Americans. Her book Wage Theft in America helped place the issue on the national radar.Click here for more information.

 Meanwhile, over at the Pope Civitas Institute, folks on the right will be hearing from the boss, himself, Art Pope. Pope has, to our knowledge, never been named anything by Utne Reader, written a book or been called a “visionary” by anyone with any horse sense, but he is clearly well along in a decades-old campaign to enhance the incomes of the state’s top 1%.

We hope you’ll show your support for alternative voices to Pope and the politicians and groups he funds by registering for and attending the Crucial Conversation. Hope to see you there!