In the latest crackdown against wage theft in Southern California, state officials said Tuesday they would penalize an Inglewood carwash operator more than $900,000 for paying workers far below the minimum wage and denying them overtime and rest breaks.
Over a three-year period that ended in 2021, Shine N Brite carwash paid 15 workers a daily flat rate as low as $70 for eight to 10 hours of work, Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said.
During that period, the state minimum wage went from $10.50 an hour to $13 an hour for businesses with 25 or fewer employees.
"These workers were paid as low as $7 an hour, which is unconscionable," García-Brower said. "This employer used different schemes to avoid paying legal wages, such as paying flat daily rates, and paying workers in cash."
At the carwash Tuesday morning, seven workers were vacuuming and polishing cars. Joe Zarabi. who said he was the manager and cousin of owner Michael Zarabi cousin, said he was unaware of the citation. He refused to discuss what workers were paid.
All of the Shine N Brite workers are immigrants from Latin America who speak little to no English, according to the Clean Carwash Worker Center, a small, foundation-funded nonprofit that brought the Inglewood case to the state's attention.
"The majority of carwashes are not paying workers for the full time they're working," said Flor Rodriguez, Clean's executive director. "Often there's no respect for overtime and some are forced to work for tips only."
Many workers, required to report to the job early in the morning, are not paid until they wash their first car, sometimes hours later. They spend long hours in the heat, exposed to harsh chemicals, and might not get lunch or rest breaks, Clean investigators say.
In Los Angeles County, more than 500 carwashes normally employ as many as 10,000 workers, although the number dropped during the pandemic. Business groups say most carwashes follow the law.
Owners often complain about Southern California's stiff competition as customers seek ever-cheaper service. And the workers, who might not have legal documents to work in the U.S., are leery of reporting wage theft.
"Many of us were not paid correctly," at Shine N Brite, said Fausto Hernandez, 62. "We complained to Mike [Zarabi] but he ignored us. And we never, never got overtime."
The $70 flat daily rate made it hard to help with the $1,800 monthly rent for the two-bedroom apartment in Inglewood he shares with two sons, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren, he said. Nor could he always afford the $250 a month he sends his wife, who is in Mexico caring for her elderly mother.
Hernandez was hospitalized with COVID for two weeks last year. Now unemployed, he said he lives "in fear."
Shine N Brite penalties of $908,998 would grant the workers $818,548 in back wages and damages. Individual workers are owed between $15,766 and $92,246, under the citations.
The business also faces $5,835 in fines from California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health after a March investigation found 14 instances of unsafe electrical equipment, hazardous machinery, a lack of protective gear and other violations. Zarabi has appealed one of the citations relating to machinery operation.
Even when the state assesses large penalties, they often go uncollected, with carwashes changing ownership or seeking delays through bureaucratic and court appeals.
Across various industries, some 30,000 California workers file wage claims every year, overwhelming an understaffed Labor Commissioner's Office, according to a 2020 report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.
Less than half of workers who were awarded back pay were able to collect any unpaid wages from their employer. On average, workers waited 396 days for the state to adjudicate their wage claim, the report said.
In 2019, in the largest carwash wage theft case ever brought by the state of California, Beverly Hills auto dealership mogul Hooman Nissani, who had boasted on his personal website that his businesses generated more than $1 billion in sales in 2016, was fined $2.36 million in back wages and penalties.
The state alleged his Playa Vista Car Wash in Culver City cheated 64 workers out of minimum wages and overtime over three years. Managers regularly altered workers' time cards, the agency alleged.
Nissani appealed the citations, saying the investigation was flawed. Three years later, a settlement remains under negotiation.
California carwashes have also come under federal scrutiny for failing to pay even the current U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 an hour — less than half of the state's pay floor.
In a 2018 consent decree, a federal judge ordered one Southern California carwash mogul, Vahid David Delrahim, to pay $4.2 million in back wages and penalties after a two-year court battle.
Over five years, Delrahim, owner of some 100 carwashes and gas stations, cheated 800 workers at a dozen carwashes in Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, federal officials alleged. A Delrahim spokesperson said the settlement was "a business decision," and Delrahim did not admit to "any wrongdoing on our part."
Among 62 carwash cases brought by the state this year, another large one targeted Torrance Car Wash, which was fined $815,311 in April for wage theft involving 35 workers.
The business, owned by Susan Amini and Reza Albolahrar, failed to pay workers for all the hours worked and for wait times and did not provide meal and rest breaks, the agency alleged.
