The owners of a Manhattan car wash are in hot water for blatantly hosing their employees, some of whom are about to get a juicy payout of $858,322—which isn't exactly a drop in the bucket! Yesterday the State Department of Labor announced a $1.9 million settlement settlement with Broadway Car Wash in Upper Manhattan, where owners failed to pay $1,273,664 in minimum wages, overtime wages and earned tips to their employees between 2003 and 2008. Employees at the car wash (NOT seen here) generally worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, without being paid overtime as required by law.

According to the Labor Department, "Some earned as little as $3.75 an hour when the minimum wage was $6.75 (they were paid $270 per week when they should have been paid $594 with overtime), and $4.00 an hour when the minimum wage was $7.15 (they were paid $288 per week when they should have been paid $629 per week with overtime). Employees earned small amounts in tips, which they were forced to share with other, non-service employees."

Owners David Winter, Ehud Cafri and Ori Apple have agreed to pay liquidated damages of $127,366 and interest of $345,000 to known employees, plus $214,581 in civil penalties to the Department of Labor. Another $415,342 is owed to employees who have yet to be identified, because the car wash operators paid some employees in cash and did not report them on the payroll. (Finally we'll get some payback for those hours at Broadway Car Wash!) "This car wash business did business by ignoring labor laws," Commissioner Colleen Gardner said in a statement. "I commend those workers who came forward to expose this employer's shameful acts." Crain's reports that investigators were tipped off about the violations after an employee complained that she was not being paid overtime wages and wasn’t being given all of her tips.