NEW ORLEANS, LA – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the company that owns Superior Seafood and Oyster Bar New Orleans has paid $238,300 in back wages and liquidated damages to 222 employees, for violating the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators discovered the company's failure to combine the hours worked for employees who worked in more than one occupation to determine whether they worked more than 40 hours in the workweek and paid them straight time rates for hours which should have been paid at time and one half the regular rate.

In addition to this, the company didn't incentive bonuses earned by employees when determining their regular rates of pay to calculate overtime. Excluding those amounts resulted in the employer paying overtime at rates lower than those required by law. 

“Other employers in this industry should use the outcome of this case as an opportunity to review their own payroll practices and make sure they comply with the law,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Troy Mouton in New Orleans, Louisiana. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to educating employers and improving compliance with federal wage laws to ensure workers receive the wages they have earned and that employers compete on a level playing field.”

The popular New Orleans restaurant sits on the corner of St. Charles and Napoleon Avenue and has been in operation since 2012.