Wingstop owners to pay more than $667,000 to settle wage theft accusations
The owner of two Wingstop locations will pay a little over $667,000 in the biggest settlement since L.A. County’s minimum wage law went into effect.
Wingstop owners to pay more than $667,000 to settle wage theft accusations
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Rebecca EllisCecilia Baza, 25, said she knew the whole time she worked as a cashier at a Wingstop restaurant
in East Long Angeles that she was not earning minimum wage.
She learned from her mother, who also worked a minimum wage job, that large employers in unincorporated L.A. LA
County were required to pay workers at least $15 per hour by July 2020 up from $14.25 the year before.
As of June 2020, she said she was still
making $13.
She said she pointed out that she was making less thanbelow
the legal hourly minimum to her employers the companys higher-ups
, but they didnt budge. So she asked the county, which sets the minimum wage for the area.
Bazas inquiry along with the pay stubs she provided set off alarm bells inside the countys Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. After a two-year-long
investigation into the wage practices of the chicken purveyor
, the department announced this week that two Wingstop locations in unincorporated L.A.LA
County will pay more than $667,000over a half-million-dollars
in fines and back wages.
Far West Restaurant Group, which franchises the two Wingstops, agreed to the settlementwill pay a little over $667,000 for alleged wage violations
the largest settlement
since the countys minimum wage law went into effect in 2016, setting the wage floor for all businesses operating in unincorporated L.A. County.
After two years
auditing payroll records and,
time cards and interviewing employees, the county found the two Wingstop locations repeatedly flouted the minimum wages
rules from between
2017 toand
2021, shortchanging their employees by as much as $2.25 per hour, paying their employees as little as $2.25 less per hour than the minimum wage , and issued a wage order against Far West.
The minimum wage is now $16.90 per hour in unincorporated L.A.LA
County.
If youre working full time and being ripped off $2.25 per hour, thats almost $400 a month, said Rafael Carbajal, d
irector of the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. Four hundred dollars$400
is a lot of money for folks living on minimum wage.
A vice president for Far West Restaurant Group said the company
declined to comment, and an email to the companys founder was not answered returned
. Wingstop did not respond to a request for comment.
Because the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs only
has jurisdiction over wage issues only
in unincorporated parts of the county LA County
, Carbajal said it they
could only
investigate only
the two Wingstops in these areas one in East Los Angeles where Baza worked and thean
other in Walnut Park. Both are in lower -
income areas of the county
with a high proportion of minimum wage workers.
The county did not look into the wage practices of Wingstops operated by Far West Restaurant Group in the county's Los Angeles
incorporated cities. According to the Wingstop website, the company is one of Wingstop's biggest franchisees with locations across Southern California.
The settlement $667,414.05 in total is the latest in a string of recent legal actions in which Far West Restaurant Group was accused of cheating workers skimping on workers wages
. In the last four years, four employees at L.A. County locations have sued the company, alleging wage theft. higher-ups failed to pay them what they were owed.
A class-action lawsuit filed inthis
May alleged employees were not paid for forced to work
hours workedthey were never paid for
and often worked through mandated meal periods.
As part of the settlement with the county
, which came in response to a wage order issued by the county, Far West Restaurant Group
will now
pay about $192,000 in back wages and another
$475,000 in fines. The fines will go to both the county and the 309 employees who worked at the two locations from 2017 to 2021. One underpaid
employee will get $17,000 in fines and back pay.Both County
Supervisor s
Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis, in
whose districts include
the two Wingstops are located locations
, both
issued statements praising the worker who had brought the wage violations to the countys attention.
Every worker deserves a fair and safe work environment where exploitation and abuse have no place, Solis said.
We will not tolerate corporate excess profiting off the backs of our working families, Mitchell said.
Baza said that after three months at Wingstop, Baza said
she left the job in June 2020 because she wasnt making enough to live on. That same month, she contacted the county to see if it could help the colleagues shed left behind.
I always felt like people could take advantage of you unless you speak up, she said. I'm glad that they're getting what they deserve, what they've been robbed [of].
