NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) - A newspaper has uncovered evidence that immigrants working for at least seven Asian restaurants in western Massachusetts were paid well below the state’s $10-an-hour minimum wage.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette, in a three-part investigative series launched Wednesday, says Chinese and Japanese eateries in Hampshire County paid employees less than they were legally due.
It quoted Lin Geng, a former sushi chef for the Zen restaurant in downtown Northampton, as saying it took him 14 years to work his way up to minimum wage.
A manager for Zen, which closed in May, denied workers were underpaid.
Labor lawyer Jocelyn Jones, a former head of the state Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division, says many wage violations go unreported by workers who fear deportation or retaliation.
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Information from: Daily Hampshire Gazette, https://www.gazettenet.com
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