A Pompano Beach restaurant company shorted 31 employees an average of $23,644.39 apiece, according to federal labor officials, who say Lucky King LLC failed to pay minimum wage and overtime to workers at Miyako Japanese Buffet. The U.S. Department of Labor says it has recovered $732,976 in back wages for those workers from the company, which owns the buffet, sushi and seafood spot on South Federal Highway.
The Wage and Hour Division announced the recovery on September 3, saying Lucky King LLC paid most of its employees a flat monthly salary of between $1,000 and $3,000, even though workers routinely put in more than 40 hours a week. As the Miami Herald reports, federal investigators determined the company failed to pay minimum wage for all hours worked, failed to properly compensate overtime, and failed to maintain the payroll records required under federal law. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a flat salary does not exempt an employer from paying overtime unless the worker's duties and pay meet specific executive, administrative, or professional criteria, according to STL.News.
State records show Lucky King LLC is managed by Hui Fang Zhang, who according to the Herald's reporting has not returned a phone message seeking comment. The Wage and Hour Division's report notes the case falls squarely within a pattern regulators have flagged nationally: food service is considered the country's highest-risk industry for wage non-compliance, with more than 25,000 restaurant investigations conducted since 2016 recovering upward of $274 million for over 195,000 workers, per My HR HRCD.
State Inspectors Flagged Separate Problems at the Buffet
While the federal wage case was unfolding, Miyako Japanese Buffet was also facing scrutiny from Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation. During its most recent inspection on August 26, the restaurant's last three inspections all ended with a follow-up required, the Herald's reporting shows. Inspectors reportedly found a can of Red Bull stored in a pan of cooked onions inside a flip-top cooler, and the restaurant received a stop sale order for the onions.
An earlier inspection, on August 25, produced a High Priority citation for storing raw animal foods over ready-to-eat foods, according to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. State inspectors also cited the restaurant for charging operational fees without properly disclosing them on the menu, website, app, bill or receipt. Miyako automatically charges a 15% tip for groups of eight or more, but posts that policy only on a board at the front of the restaurant rather than on the bill itself, the Herald reports.
How Broward Workers Can Pursue Unpaid Wages
Workers who suspect they are owed wages can report suspected federal violations to the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division at 866-487-9243. Beyond federal channels, Broward County has offered its own recourse since October 2012, when it enacted a Wage Protection Ordinance allowing local workers to file claims for unpaid wages exceeding $60 if an employer fails to pay within 14 days of a regular pay period, according to Ogletree Deakins. Broward was the second Florida county to adopt such a framework.
The case also lands amid a period of rising wage floors in Florida. Under the state's voter-approved Amendment 2 schedule, the minimum wage climbed to $13.00 per hour in September 2024, to $14.00 per hour in September 2025, and is set to reach $15.00 per hour by September 30 this year, per Labor Law Posters Online. Employers who fail to keep pace with those mandated increases, or who misclassify hourly staff as salaried to dodge overtime, face escalating exposure as wage floors rise.
A Path Employers Can Use Before Enforcement Hits
The Labor Department also maintains a program called Payroll Audit Independent Determination, or PAID, which lets employers voluntarily self-report potential minimum wage and overtime violations and resolve them without formal litigation or liquidated damages. Nationally, Wage and Hour Division enforcement recovered $212.3 million in back wages for more than 163,000 workers in fiscal year 2023, following $213.1 million in fiscal 2022 and $234.3 million in fiscal 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A separate survey from One Fair Wage found that more than 34% of restaurant workers reported experiencing wage theft, with unpaid overtime and sub-minimum wage pay among the most common complaints, as reported by Restaurant Dive.
Miyako Japanese Buffet operates out of the Pompano Marketplace Plaza at 1157 S. Federal Highway under an active public food service license, according to New Pelican. For now, the $732,976 recovery stands as one of the more substantial restaurant wage cases to hit South Florida in recent memory, with Zhang and Lucky King LLC yet to publicly respond.
