A Pompano Beach, Florida, buffet paid most of its 31 workers a flat monthly salary of $1,000 to $3,000 even though they regularly worked more than 40 hours a week, the U.S. Labor Department says. The department’s Wage and Hour Division recovered $732,976 for those workers, which averages out to about $23,644 each. The recovery was announced September 3, and the division runs a search tool for workers who think it collected wages in their name.
What the Wage and Hour Division found at the buffet
The employer is Lucky King LLC, operating as Miyako Japanese Buffet in Pompano Beach. The release headline calls the business a seafood restaurant, while the text names it as the buffet. The division’s investigators made the findings under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law that sets minimum wage and overtime.
The division says the employer paid most employees a monthly salary between $1,000 and $3,000 despite regular overtime. Covered workers who are not exempt must receive at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours past 40 in a workweek. The division also found the buffet failed to pay minimum wage for all hours worked and failed to keep required records.
The release subtitle states the core problem: the employer did not calculate the amount of time worked when paying employees. A monthly figure stays the same when a workweek stretches from 40 hours to 60. The release does not say how many hours the workers put in or what hourly rate the salary came to.
The $23,644 figure is not in the release. It is the $732,976 total divided by 31 workers, so it is a simple average, and individual workers would have received more or less depending on their hours and how long they were on the payroll. The release does not say how the money was divided.
That raises a direct question for anyone paid a set monthly or weekly amount at a restaurant, a shop or a care facility: does the flat figure cover the hours past 40? At this buffet, the division’s finding was that a salary in the $1,000 to $3,000 range did not. Workers in that position can look up whether the department is already holding wages collected from an employer.
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What the September announcement says about payment
The release says the department has recovered the $732,976 for 31 Florida restaurant workers. It does not say whether the money has been paid out. It lists no civil money penalties or damages on top of the back wages, and it quotes no division official; it gives a media contact instead.
The announcement is dated September 3 and sets no deadline for workers at the buffet. Anyone who worked there should not assume the money has reached them, because the department says only that it recovered the wages. Whether a given worker is on the list is something the division has to answer.
For employees it cannot locate, the division says on its website that it holds their back wages for three years. After that, if it still cannot find the person, it must send the money to the U.S. Treasury. A worker who moved, changed a phone number or never saw the release is the one that rule affects.
How a worker checks whether the division is holding wages
The Wage and Hour Division runs a Workers Owed Wages search. A worker enters the employer’s name, then searches for his or her own name to see whether the division has wages on file. If it does, the worker submits contact information so the division can send the claim form.
The form is the Back Wage Claim Form, WH-60. The division emails it, and the worker must create a login.gov account to upload it securely. Proof of identity is required, such as a Social Security card, an ITIN card, a driver’s license or state ID, or a W-2 or pay stub.
The division says it processes the form in about six weeks and then sends the wages. Since October 1, 2025, all payments are electronic, so workers who have been getting paper checks have to update their information. Questions go to the division’s toll-free helpline, 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).
The buffet was also cited for failing to keep required records, and the department points workers to a free timesheet app for iOS and Android that tracks their own hours and pay. A worker’s own log is the one record the employer did not make. The release does not say how the department rebuilt the hours in this case.
The Pompano Beach case shows how far a flat salary can drift from the hours behind it. Averaged over 31 workers, the recovery came to roughly $23,644 each, far more than a single missed shift would explain. The question for workers elsewhere is whether anyone is counting their hours.
Worked past 40 hours on a flat salary?
Back wages the Labor Department cannot hand over sit for three years before the money moves to the Treasury, and a worker who never saw the September announcement has no reason to run the search. Wages are only one of the places money waits for people who changed jobs, addresses or names.
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More Financial Reading
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
