Nearly 500 restaurant employees were underpaid by $1.3 million at 34 Boston-area restaurants, including Not Your Average Joe’s, Miracle of Science, Metropolitan Club, and Fresh City, according to the US Department of Labor, which conducted investigations over the past two years.
The agency said it discovered significant violations of the minimum wage, overtime, and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
For example, the Not Your Average Joe’s chain owed workers more than $568,000 for violations at 15 restaurants. Science Park Group underpaid employees by about $209,000 at its six restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, including Tory Row, Miracle of Science, Middlesex Lounge, Audubon Circle, and Cambridge,1. Metropolitan Club restaurants in Chestnut Hill, Dedham, and Natick owed workers roughly $145,000.
“We were surprised by the results. This is substantial,’’ said George A. Rioux, the Labor Department’s district director in Boston. “We’re not getting the change in behavior we want. Companies are paying back wages and agreeing to compliance, and it’s not enough to finally wake up and see that we’re serious.’’
Rioux said the agency also found that more businesses - including Not Your Average Joe’s - are misclassifying restaurant workers as independent contractors in an effort to avoid minimum wage, overtime, and other pay requirements.
Joe McGuire, Not Your Average Joe’s chief financial officer, said the workers covered by the settlement were employed by a contractor, Operations Management Group, which had assured the restaurant chain that it was properly paying overtime and meeting all legal requirements.
“We consider ourselves a victim of fraud in this situation, as we relied upon the representations of our vendor,’’ McGuire wrote in an e-mail. “We have sued the vendor and its principals for the full amount of our settlement, but our information is that they have fled the country.’’
Operations Management Group, a Framingham company the Labor Department says is no longer in business, also provided labor for the Sherborn Inn, D’Ann’s, and Paul W. Marks. The company is being fined $1,000 for each day it fails to cooperate and provide requested records, according to the Labor Department.
Former company officials could not be reached for comment.
Officials with Science Park and Metropolitan Club did not respond to messages seeking comment.
All of the companies cited, which included T.G.I. Friday’s in Framingham and Noon Hill Grill in Medfield, have pledged full compliance with federal labor laws and have paid - or are in the process of paying - their employees, according to the Labor Department.
Over the past year, the agency also assessed a total of $295,108 in damages in addition to back wages against several restaurants, including Metropolitan Club, the Sherborn Inn, and the now-closed Upper Crust Pizzeria in Salem. The damages were assessed mostly in cases when the agency believed the restaurants knowingly violated the law.
“The restaurant industry employs some of our country’s lowest-paid workers, who are vulnerable to exploitation,’’ Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said. “In response to the extensive level of noncompliance we discovered, we will expand our efforts to bring the industry into compliance to ensure that employees receive the minimum wage and overtime wages required by law.’’
The Labor Department said it plans to continue educational efforts with the Massachusetts Restaurant Association to help the trade group’s members comply with the law.
Peter Christie, chief executive of the restaurant association, said that for several years the group has advised companies against using contract labor, but said that conflicting federal and state laws can cause confusion.
“There is no way that these restaurants are deliberately and knowingly violating wage and hour stuff,’’ Christie said. “It’s generally out of ignorance. But ignorance is no excuse.’’
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.