Some of the restaurant owners who acknowledged paying workers less than the legal minimum in initial interviews with the Gazette offered different accounts when a reporter asked follow-up questions about the legality of that practice.
Limei Chen, owner of Sakura Buffet on King Street in Northampton, provided different answers during the Gazette’s three visits. When asked about her starting salaries during an initial interview, she said she paid untipped kitchen workers at least $9 an hour.
In a follow-up interview addressing the legality of that practice, Chen revised the pay rate to $10 an hour, the state’s legal minimum wage.
Asked which figure was correct, Chen said, “It depends.”
“Sometimes they’re training and they get a little bit lower,” she said. “It’s averaging like $10.”
Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts attorney general’s office, said workers must make the minimum wage for all hours worked, including training time.
Chen said she bases her pay practices on what other Chinese restaurants around the country do.
“All Chinese restaurants (are) like that, so we just follow up,” she said.
She said she rents apartments for her workers at Hampshire Heights, a property owned by the Northampton Housing Authority.
“It’s expensive,” she said, adding that she’s looking to buy a big house where her family and her workers can all live together.
Rent for apartments at Hampshire Heights range from $840 to $1,300 a month, said Northampton Housing Authority Executive Director Cara Clifford. The out-of-pocket expense for each resident varies according to their income.
The owner of Oriental Flavor in Amherst and Oriental Taste in Northampton offered varying responses when asked if his pay practices meet legal requirements.
Asked if the starting pay at his Amherst location — $1,500 a month for 50-hour weeks — is the same at the new Northampton restaurant, Cheng Hui Zheng said, “pretty close, yes.”
The legal minimum would be $2,000, without factoring in overtime pay.
Asked why his wage did not rise to that standard, he replied: “My lawyer — we keep in touch,” he said. “Once they (workers) have better experience, then we add money for them.”
Then, in the same interview, he backpedaled on the base figure. “It’s actually not $1,500,” he said. “No one is paid lower than $10” an hour.
“Some of them include rental,” he added. According to state law, employers can deduct $140 for housing during a four-week period if employees are given their own room, and if they consent voluntarily to the deductions in writing. Even with that deduction, the salary would be less than the legally required $1,860 a month (without overtime pay) for the same hours.
“I think I match the standard,” he said. When told the pay would still be less than required for 50-hour weeks, he said, “Maybe less hours, then.”
When Gazette staffers returned to Dynasty Gourmet to ask follow-up questions about compliance with wage and hour laws, the owner’s wife spoke on her husband’s behalf.
Dynasty Gourmet owner Jay Zhang initially told the Gazette he pays workers $2,000 a month for 72-hour work weeks, less than the $2,880 ($3,520 with overtime) minimum. When the Gazette returned to ask about the legality of that practice, his wife, Jessica Li, said the salary was accurate but the hours were not.
“Workers have shifts,” she said. “It’s not true for one person to work 72 hours in one week.”
Asked how many hours employees work in the kitchen, she said, “We didn’t count the hours. Workers are more flexible.”
Some restaurant owners say they take pride in paying minimum wage or better, while also providing free housing.
Rich Lau, owner of Panda Garden restaurant in Williamsburg, said his full-time kitchen staffers make $3,000 a month for 240 hours. A worker making minimum wage and overtime pay for the same hours would make $2,800.
Additionally, he said, he pays rent for them at townhouses on East Hadley Road in Amherst.
Lau said he advertises at the job agencies, offering more than the others in order to attract industrious workers to a restaurant that’s located off the beaten path.
“That’s why everyone likes me,” he said, laughing.
Because his workers lack vehicles and driver’s licenses, Lau transports employees from Amherst in the morning, then brings them home at night.
“They don’t have to pay for anything,” he said.
Owners and managers at many Chinese and Japanese restaurants in Hampshire County were reluctant to answer questions from the Gazette about their wage practices.
“It’s not really good for me to answer these questions,” said Michael Yan, owner of West Lake Gourmet restaurant in Southampton.
“Too personal,” said a manager at Arigato restaurant in Amherst who identified herself only as Mindy.
Others, like managers at Ichiban in South Hadley and Panda East in Amherst, agreed to answer questions but shut down the interview when questions turned toward employee compensation.
“Too much questions,” said Ichiban manager Tina Hung, reaching for the reporter’s notebook.
Some restaurants, like Min Fen Kitchen in Belchertown — staffed only by the husband and wife who own it — are too small to hire other workers.
Another Belchertown restaurant, Wong Garden, is slightly larger. According to owner Iris Huyhn, the restaurant sometimes hires through Chinatown job agencies, but prefers college students and other local residents instead.
When they do hire workers from the agencies (none currently work there) Huyhn said they rent an apartment for them, because that’s what’s expected. Regardless, she said, starting pay at the restaurant is $10-an-hour.
Others, like Great Wall in Florence, populate their full-time ranks with family members, sporadically hiring non-family kitchen workers and starting them at $11 an hour, according to owner Clara Li.
“We have enough family support,” said Li during a weekday lunch hour as her mother and father took finished plates from the line and distributed them around the dining room.
She said her siblings also work at the restaurant, and when she needs extra hands she often hires young local people.
“A lot of people need a job,” she said. “So why don’t we use local?”
Amanda Drane can
be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.