S.C. restaurants to pay nearly $486,000 in back wages

Pancho’s Inc., which conducts business as Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant I, II and III, as well as Papa’s and Beer Mexican Restaurant are to pay 85 employees $485,913 in back wages following investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

The investigations found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime, minimum wage and record-keeping provisions at each restaurant location and were conducted over a multiyear enforcement initiative that targeted the restaurant industry in South Carolina after widespread noncompliance with the FLSA had been discovered. In fact, beginning in the fiscal year 2009, the division’s Columbia District Office had completed more than 300 investigations under the initiative that ended in companies paying more than $2.5 million in back wages recovered for more than 2,500 workers.