Restaurant shortchanged its employees and violated child labor laws in SC, feds say

A Mexican restaurant in South Carolina failed to pay employees fair wages and violated child labor laws, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a March 21 news release.

Los Arcos Inc. failed to pay workers at Los Arcos Mexican Restaurant in Goose Creek their legally earned wages, according to investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour division, the release said. The company also violated minimum wage, overtime, and record keeping requirements set by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the release said.

“The division recovered $108,924 in back wages and liquidated damages for the affected workers,” the release said.

A representative of Los Arcos Inc. couldn’t be reached for comment by McClatchy News.

The investigation also showed the restaurant allowed two 15-year-old employees to work for more than 18 hours during the school week, also violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the release.

The law puts limits on how many hours 14 and 15-year-olds are allowed to work during the school year and what times of day they’re allowed to work. They can only work up to 18 hours each week between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. during the school year.

The same restaurant paid $459,130 to 28 employees in 2016 after another investigation determined the restaurant violated federal minimum wage, overtime and record keeping rules, Live 5 News reported.

Violations of workers’ rights are especially significant during a time when restaurants and other businesses have a shortage of employees, the department said. In December 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 958,000 food service and hospitality workers left their industries, the release said.

Meanwhile, the need for such workers continues to grow — the demand for restaurant food servers is expected to grow by 20% between 2020 and 2030, or by about 2.4 million jobs, the department said in the release.

“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 the release.

Goose Creek is located about 18 miles from Charleston.

This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Restaurant shortchanged its employees and violated child labor laws in SC, feds say."