Governor Hochul announced Monday that more than $1 million in unpaid wages has been recovered and distributed to thousands of workers at Chipotle restaurants in New York.
The New York State Department of Labor has recovered unpaid wages from more than 20,000 Chipotle restaurant workers across 207 locations in the state.
“Ensuring that workers get every penny they’re owed is a fundamental right, and we’re committed to holding employers accountable,” New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said in a written statement Monday. “This significant compensation award for Chipotle workers demonstrates our unwavering commitment to protecting workers’ rights and advancing fair workplaces in New York State.”
The New York State Department of Labor has investigated and recovered stolen wages from nearly 65,000 workers in the state over the past two years, Hochul’s office said. This is the result of an expansion of the state’s Wage Theft Task Force and the addition of a hotline and online reporting system in 2022.
In 2023, state lawmakers held a hearing in Manhattan to further crack down on payroll fraud in the state, which they estimated was worth $1 billion in New York City alone. The hearing followed a USA Today Network-New York investigation into a contractor accused in court of withholding tens of thousands of dollars in wages from day laborers in the Westchester County area.
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What wage issues were uncovered during Chipotle’s investigation?
An investigation by the state Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards into Chipotle’s wage issues stemmed from a tip from the Workers’ Compensation Board. The company was asked to review payroll records from December 2018 through September 2022 and from August 2021 through July 2023.
This is what they discovered:
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Wage issues regarding the appropriate minimum wage for fast food workers, which is higher than the regular minimum wage.
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Wage issues with staggered hour pay, where employees have to pay extra time to employees who work more than 10 hours per day.
The investigation uncovered more payment problems after the Department of Labor received another complaint alleging that Chipotle had stopped paying certain required wages, which the company attributed to a system error.
As a result of the investigation, Chipotle paid all active employees directly and provided funds to the state Department of Labor to pay former employees. Individual recoveries ranged from $10 to more than $3,600.
“These issues arose due to inadvertent payroll errors,” a Chipotle representative said. “As part of our commitment to supporting and properly compensating our team members, we self-adjusted and properly paid many of the impacted employees last year, before the Department of Labor directed us to do so. We have implemented changes to our payroll system to help prevent this from happening again.”
The Chipotle representative also said the company voluntarily paid $396,045 before the state Department of Labor mandated it pay an additional $584,062.
What to do if you think you have been a victim of wage fraud
Victims are encouraged to file a complaint about their wages at dol.ny.gov. For assistance, they can email the Department of Labor at labor.sm.ls.ask@labor.ny.gov.
Emily Barnes is the New York State Team consumer advocacy reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact Barnes at ebarnes@gannett.com or on Twitter @byemilybarnes.
This article originally appeared on the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Unpaid Wages for NY Chipotle Workers Reclaimed. What Happened?
