In the last couple of years, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sure has been busy in south Florida. Since its “strategic enforcement initiative” was launched in 2012, it has found 152 restaurants in violation of  labor law.

Among the offenders, according to the DOL, five Frenchy’s and two Vallarta’s Mexican restaurants had “significant” violations, namely, withholding tips from wait staff, failing to pay overtime and taking the fees out of employees’ pay when customers used credit cards.

The initiative resulted in the scores of restaurants agreeing to pay more than 1,500 employees back wages of $861,000. Additional penalties brought the tab for breaking the law to more than $1 million. The restaurants also agreed to follow the rules in the future.

But we have a feeling the DOL will need to remain vigilant. One story source told a reporter that a local restaurant recently offered him $6 per hour to wash dishes; the minimum wage is $7.25.

“I went to high school in New Tampa and I have a lot of friends who worked at restaurants,” he said, and “they all told me the same thing.”

Read the whole story on MyFoxTampaBay.com and the Tampa Bay Business Journal.