Three Fredericksburg-area Mexican restaurants were among half a dozen in Virginia cited for labor violations, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Wednesday.
The investigation found that owners of the restaurants failed to pay 55 employees $196,000 in overtime back wages, the department said in a news release.
Of those employees, 16 worked at three area locations and were owed a total of $25,361 in back wages.
In the news release, the labor department said the restaurant owners violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when they “failed to pay 49 salaried, non-exempt employees and six non-exempt hourly, tipped employees the proper overtime premium of time-and-one-half for hours over 40 in a workweek.”
The investigation also found that the restaurants allowed juvenile employees to “work past permissible hours, a violation of the FLSA’s child labor provisions, which limit the times of day, number of hours, and industries and occupations in which 14- and 15-year-olds may be employed,” according to the labor department.
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Two of the restaurants are in Harrisonburg and another is in Bridgewater.
The El Charro restaurant in Spotsylvania was among the locations cited by the Department of Labor.
The labor department investigated the three following Fredericksburg-area restaurants:
- El Charro 5 Mexican Restaurant, 4611 Southpoint Parkway, Fredericksburg, owned by El Charro Group LLC.
- El Charro 6 Mexican Restaurant, 8145 Kings Highway, King George County, owned by El Charro Mexican Restaurant LLC.
- La Naranja Cocina Mexicana, 182 Byrd St., Orange County, owned by La Naranja Cocina Mexicana Corp.
The Fredericksburg restaurant investigation covered a period from November 2019 to October 2021. The King George restaurant’s violations happened between June 2019 and June 2021, and the Orange location owed back wages for a period between September 2019 and September 2021.
The labor department does not divulge how investigations start, Leni Fortson, a labor department spokeswoman, said in an email.
Such investigations can begin either through a complaint or a “directed investigation,” Forston said.
All of the back wages have been paid.
“As restaurants struggle to find the workers they need to remain competitive, they must remember that retaining and recruiting workers is harder for employers who fail to respect workers’ rights and pay them their full wages, and who violate labor laws in general,” Roberto Melendez, the labor department’s Virginia wage and hour division district director, said in the release. “Employers who fall short of their obligations will be held legally accountable.”
Most common jobs 150 years ago in Virginia
At the time of the American Revolution, most of the job market in the U.S. revolved around agriculture or food acquisition in some way. Many individuals and communities farmed for subsistence, not even growing enough to have an excess to sell for profits. As the fledgling country grew, so did its economy, springing forth during the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, and inexorably shifting the nation’s economic focus from agrarian efforts to those of manufacturing, trade, and other forms of business. Inventions like the steam engine and cotton gin accelerated production, feeding a booming job market that was met with immigrants eager to find work.
By the mid- to late-1800s, the U.S. economy and job market was characterized by successive periods of rapid growth followed by panics or depressions. This economic disquiet was caused by stock speculation and oscillating levels of trust in the federal government’s ability to regulate cash flow and support banks. In turn, the uncertain economy produced a volatile job market.
In an effort to capture a snapshot of the U.S. job market’s history, Stacker compiled a list of the most common jobs in Virginia from 150 years ago using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. By transcribing the previously untranscribed Table XXVII from the 1870 decennial census, a state-level glimpse into the historic job market can be seen. Nationally, farmers and planters were the most common occupation 150 years ago, just one of the many agricultural jobs that made up more than 47% of all employed persons over ten years old.
Continue reading to find out more about the historical job market in your home state or explore the data on your own on our site, GitHub, or data.world.
– Virginia employment: 162,604
– National employment: 2,885,996
— #2 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 54,008
– National employment: 975,734
— #4 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 27,730
– National employment: 1,031,666
— #3 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 6,912
– National employment: 344,596
— #5 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 6,073
– National employment: 11,985
— #80 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 4,077
– National employment: 141,774
— #11 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 3,680
– National employment: 222,504
— #6 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 3,623
– National employment: 60,906
— #21 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 3,580
– National employment: 27,106
— #48 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 3,130
– National employment: 161,820
— #8 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 2,986
– National employment: 171,127
— #7 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 2,944
– National employment: 154,027
— #9 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 2,521
– National employment: 126,822
— #12 most common job in the U.S.
– Virginia employment: 2,355
– National employment: 100,406
— #15 most common job in the U.S.
Scott Shenk: 540/374-5436
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