Is Your Favorite Restaurant Violating Labor Laws?

Nearly four out of five Oregon restaurants got caught shorting their employees for overtime or failing to report it properly.

The US Department of Labor investigated 110 restaurants under the the Fair Labor Standards Act and found 79 percent weren't following the law. Other violations include making employees work off the clock, and pay for cash register shortages, their own uniforms, and the cost of broken equipment.

The restaurants failed to pay an estimated $740,000 in wages to about 500 employees. 

Top violators include El Indio Mexican Restaurant in Northeast Portland with 21 violations, and 81 violations at Sinju Sushi in Northwest Portland.

"This investigation isn't specific to Portland, we investigated the entire state of Oregon, southern Washington and Idaho," Jeffery Genkos, the labor department's wage and hour district director, tells WW, "but a 79 percent failure is pretty alarming."

Genkos says the most common violations are failing to compensate for overtime and employees working off the clock.

"Some of the restaurants don't pay for work that an employee may do prior to clocking in," Genkos said. "Or they may punch out and still have to clean up at the end of the night."  

The Labor Department also offers a map of all its invesigtations in Oregon here.