Owner of 5 California Wingstop locations owes $3 million, accused of underpaying 550 workers. California’s top wage theft watchdog has cited five restaurants and their owner for allegedly cheating more than 550 workers out of the state minimum wage and overtime, as well as premiums for missed meal breaks.
California’s top wage theft watchdog has cited five restaurants and their owner, Clinton Lewis, for allegedly cheating over 550 workers out of the state minimum wage and overtime, as well as premiums for missed meal breaks. The investigation into Lewis and his restaurants began in November 2020 after receiving a labor law violation report for one of the locations. Investigators found that Lewis operated each Wingstop location as a separate corporate entity between 2019 and 2022, allowing him to pay employees a lower minimum wage that applied to employers with fewer than 25 employees. Employees scheduled to work at more than one of Lewis’s restaurants in a single day were denied overtime pay, and Lewis failed to compensate employees for missed meal break premiums when they were scheduled to work at more than one location.