Carl’s Jr. Just Got Hit With A $1.45 Million Fine Over This

It seems that Carl’s Jr. hasn’t been doing a good job paying its workers. From July to December of 2016, the fast food chain failed to pay dozens of its employees the minimum wage of $10.50 an hour. Los Angeles City officials are demanding that the company pay $1.45 million in penalties and back wages.

Los Angeles City attorney Mike Feuer commented, “L.A. law is clear: Employees must be paid at least the minimum wage. Anything less is a slap in the face to workers struggling to make ends meet. This is a major corporation that should know the rules.”

It was 37 employees identified by the Office of Wage Standards that did not receive the correct minimum wage. The city demands that Carl’s Jr. pay around $910,000 in penalties. The city is also demanding $541,000 for allegedly violating the city’s minimum wage law and two other infractions.

Carl’s Jr. made a statement and said, “This demand is, on its face simply, unreasonable. It is also unconstitutional in that it disregards the Excessive Fines Clause of the Constitution to obtain money that will not go to our employees and will have no connection to the matter at hand.”

According to CKE Restaurants, the mistake was an “inadvertent payroll error” and the employees had already received their owed back wages.

“Our employees have been made whole and we are willing to pay a reasonable fine for our mistake,” the company said Tuesday. “However, given the excessive demands of the OWS, we have no choice but to defend against any OWS actions.”