Feds order Goose Creek restaurant to pay back wages

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A Goose Creek restaurant allowed underaged workers to put in more hours than allowed by law and neglected to appropriately pay 21 workers, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a statement.

Los Arcos Inc., which is located on St. James Avenue, has paid $108,924 in back pay, liquidated damages and miscalculated overtime, the agency’s Wage and Hour Division said.

Investigators said that the restaurant “failed to pay the workers their legally earned wages and violated minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping” under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The agency said the company did not pay some employees for actual hours worked and failed to properly calculate overtime.

Additionally, the agency’s investigators said that Los Arcos allowed two workers who were 15 years old to work more than 18 hours per week during the school year, which is a violation of a law that limits the amount of work available for a school-aged worker.

The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said that, with few exceptions, no one under 14 is allowed to work in South Carolina.

Theatrical workers and performers are allowed to be minors, and workers age 12-13 are allowed to work on farms with parental consent. If a business is 100% owned by a parent, then workers of any age are allowed, LLR said. Minors also are allowed to deliver newspapers in South Carolina.

During the school year, minors age 14-15 can work up to three hours a day with a weekly maximum of 18 hours.

In 2016, the Labor Department cited Los Arcos for labor and wage violations after investigations at the company’s restaurants in Goose Creek and Mount Pleasant. The location in Mount Pleasant is now closed.

In that case, the company paid more than $459,000 to workers after investigators said the company did not properly pay some workers, failed to pay overtime and required the wait staff to work only for tips, among other allegations.

The Labor Department reported that in fiscal year 2021, more than $34.7 million was recovered for around 29,000 food and beverage workers statewide. The agency conducted 4,200 investigations during that time.

“As food service industry employers struggle to find people to fill the jobs needed to remain competitive, they must take into account that retaining and recruiting workers is more difficult when employers fail to respect workers’ rights and pay them their full wages,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel said in a statement from the agency’s Columbia office.

The agency noted that nearly 1 million food and beverage workers have left their jobs in the last three months across the U.S. Additionally, demand for food service employees is expected to rise by 20% by 2030, the Labor Department said.

Custom Publishing Division Editor Steve McDaniel contributed to this report.