888 Seafood Restaurant has agreed to pay $306,500 in overtime back wages to 57 employees who worked at the popular Chinese restaurant in California's San Gabriel Valley and a related food service company.

The agreement follows a U.S. Labor Department investigation of the company's pay practices.

"Our investigation showed that these employees routinely put in additional work time after they clocked out," says George Friday Jr., regional administrator of the department's Wage and Hour Division. "Employers are responsible for complying with the requirements of the FLSA so that workers can count on being paid properly for all the hours they work every workweek."

The department's Wage and Hour Division alleges that employees worked approximately 12 hours per day, six days per week and were paid in cash at the straight-time rate.

The firm has begun repaying back wages due employees, many of whom were Asian or Hispanic, for overtime worked between March 2002 and June 2005. The entire amount owed will be paid by April 2006. The firm has also agreed to pay civil money penalties of $35,000 for repeat and willful violations. The Wage and Hour Division says it investigated the restaurant for similar violations in 2000, recovering $4,283 in overtime back wages for five employees.

In settling the investigation, the restaurant admitted no wrongdoing.