Carl’s Jr. fined $1.45M in wages, fees

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles this week ordered Carl’s Jr., the fast-food chain that also operates as Hardee’s, to pay $1.45 million in back wages, fines and penalties for what city officials said was paying its workers less than the minimum wage.

The city says Carl’s Jr. failed to pay 37 employees at seven Los Angeles restaurants the city’s minimum wage of $10.50 an hour, accounting for $5,400 in unpaid wages between July and December of last year. During that time, the fast-food chain was led by Andrew Puzder, President Donald Trump’s original nominee for Labor Secretary. Puzder withdrew his nomination in February.

“L.A. law is clear: Employees must be paid at least the minimum wage,” City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement. “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.”

For its part, CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, says it made “an inadvertent payroll error” and called the penalty excessive.

“This demand is, on its face, simply unreasonable,” a company representative said in an email.

In all, Los Angeles is ordering the company to pay about $900,000 to the employees within the next month. The company is also being fined $541,000 in penalties.