Despite some staffers working as many as 67 hours a week, Jimmy Carter — no relation to the former peanut farmer/U.S. president — "failed to pay employees, including waiters and cooks, the required overtime pay rates for hours over 40 in a workweek," according to federal investigators.
Now, officials with the U.S. Department of Labor said it has recovered more than $127,000 in back wages and damages for the 18 workers who "got the special."
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Reached by phone on Tuesday, owner James Brennan Carter freely admitted his role in the situation but offered a defense.
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"Let me put it this way: I broke the law, I got caught, I got penalized for it," Carter said. "It's a bad system. It penalizes people."
Jimmy Carter's restaurant has been a mainstay in the San Diego dining scene for decades; at one point, there were multiple locations, including a spot on Washington Street in Mission Hills, but the mini-chain has now shrunk to a single cantina, on 5th Avenue in Bankers Hill.
The unpaid-overtime situation came to light after a tip to the Employment Education and Outreach alliance (EMPLEO), according to investigators.
“Restaurant employers such as Jimmy Carter’s Mexican Café cheat workers and commit wage theft when they refuse to pay employees’ earned overtime wages,” Wage and Hour District Director Min Park-Chung of the Labor Department. “Cooks and servers often work long hours and, like all workers, must be paid in compliance with federal labor laws. Employers who undercut their workers’ wages will be held accountable.”
More than $63,000 in back wages (and an equal amount in damages) and over $7,000 in penalties were recovered by the Department of Labor.
For his part, Carter maintains that he paid the staff for their overtime hours but not at the overtime rate. He said that if he limits the hours he pays kitchen workers to 40 hours a week, they have to go find another job somewhere else in order to afford to live in San Diego. Carter added that he started the practice when one employee was taking a bus to La Jolla to work as a janitor, so, Carter said, he gave the worker "a little raise" and paid him the regular rate for overtime work. Carter said the worker then saved the time and expense of traveling.
"It's simpler to work in one place," Carter said.
Asked why he didn't pay the overtime rate for overtime work, Carter said he couldn't afford it, but he also said that he would be able to afford paying the back wages and penalties and also be able to keep the restaurant running.
"I'm not complaining [about what's transpired with the Department of Labor]," Carter said. "I'm just complaining about the system."
EMPLEO runs a toll-free hotline to assist workers with workplace issues (in more than 200 languages) that can be reached at 877-552-9832. Employees can use that number for access to a search tool if they believe they are owed back wages collected by the division.
