Boise-area restaurant chain to pay a total of $230,000 in unpaid overtime and damages to 51 workers following US Labor Department investigation

BOISE, Idaho — Chapala Mexican Restaurant, a Boise-area restaurant chain, will pay $230,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 51 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found overtime violations at its Boise, Nampa, Garden City and McCall locations. Investigators with the department's Wage and Hour Division found that the restaurant owners failed to compensate cooks, tipped employees and other staff for all hours worked, plus time and one-half for hours worked beyond 40 per week, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

"Chapala systemically underpaid dozens of employees for overtime hours worked," said Thomas Silva, the division's acting district director in Portland, Oregon. "Those workers will now get the wages they earned. The law protects workers, but it also levels the playing field. Employers that play by the rules should not be at a financial disadvantage to those businesses that make a profit when they violate the law."

The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, as well as one and one-half times their regular rates for every hour they work beyond 40 per week. The law also requires employers to maintain accurate records of employees' wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

The FLSA provides that employers who violate the law are generally liable to employees for their back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, which are paid directly to the affected employees.

For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the agency's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.

• Read this news release in Spanish.