A Steamboat Springs restaurant has agreed to pay $50,000 in back wages to eight immigrant workers after it ran afoul of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The restaurant, which mostly hired workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries, failed to pay regular wages on-time and often did not pay overtime. It also fudged the amount of tips being reported, and it did not distribute tips to every eligible worker, said Iris Halpern, senior trial attorney for the EEOC’s Denver office.
The Steamboat Springs restaurant was not named because the agreement was reached during a mediation process, which normally is kept confidential. However, the EEOC negotiated with the restaurant to release facts of the case because its attorneys believe similar situations exist in restaurants across the United States, Halpern said.
Immigrant workers often are not aware of their rights, and many don’t think of wage theft as being a discriminatory action, Halpern said.
“I know it’s happening across the industry,” she said.
The restaurant’s theft was reported to the EEOC after Halpern held outreach meetings in the area. When a worker spoke to a community group about not being paid, they referred the woman to the EEOC. A friend filed the complaint on behalf of the restaurant’s employee, who was undocumented and feared deportation, Halpern said.
The restaurant had been stealing employees’ wages since it opened, Halpern said. Employees said they often had to ask to get their paychecks, and sometimes went as long as six weeks before receiving paychecks, an EEOC news release said.
One employee reported not being paid for a year.
The restaurant also misled employees about the tax deductions it was withholding, and it reduced pay by deducting unsubstantiated amounts in wages, the news release said. Studies have found that wage theft often is connected to racial, ethnic and immigration status, and women are more likely to be taken advantage of than men, the news release said.
“Immigrant workers are more vulnerable to wage theft because they tend to have less information about their rights, and some employers are more likely to try to exploit their lack of knowledge and fear in order to pay them less,” Elizabeth Cadle, acting director of the EEOC’s Phoenix office, said.
