Press Release  AG Healey Cites the Red Hat Bar in Boston for Failing to Pay Workers on Time and in Full

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today announced her office has issued three citations totaling more than $79,790 in restitution and penalties against a Boston restaurant and bar and its owner for violating the state’s wage and hour and earned sick time laws.

SNP Restaurant Group d/b/a Red Hat Café and its president Paul Tupa have been cited for failing to pay wages to 15 employees in a timely manner, to maintain an earned sick leave policy, and records violations.

The AG’s Office began investigating The Red Hat after receiving complaints alleging the employer failed to pay workers their wages in a timely manner. As part of the investigation, the AG’s Office issued demands to the employer asking for payroll and time keeping records to which the business failed to fully respond. The investigation revealed that employees were regularly underpaid, paid late, or not paid for all the hours that they worked.

The AG’s Office previously cited the employer a total of $16,000 in penalties in September 2019 and January 2020 for failing to submit records to the AG’s Office.

Under Massachusetts wage and hour laws, employers must pay employees all wages earned within six days of the end of a pay period.

AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division is responsible for enforcing state laws regulating the payment of wages, including prevailing wage, minimum wage, overtime, and earned sick time laws. The AG’s Office recently released its fifth annual Labor Day Report on the Fair Labor Division’s efforts to address wage theft and other forms of worker exploitation in fiscal year 2020. The report shows that the Division assessed more than $12.3 million in restitution and penalties against employers on behalf of workers in Massachusetts, and that the hospitality industry received the largest percentage of citations last fiscal year, with 252 enforcement actions and more than $4.1 million in restitution and penalties.

Workers who believe that their rights have been violated in their workplace are encouraged to file a complaint at www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor. For information about the state’s wage and hour laws, workers may call the AG’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or go to www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for materials in multiple languages.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Amy Goyer and Supervising Investigator Jen Pak, both of the AG’s Fair Labor Division.

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