Cowbell settles with Labor Department over wage, overtime violations

Cowbell’s federal settlement turned familiar restaurant shortcuts into a real financial hit: missed wages, missing overtime and illegal teen scheduling now carried a price tag of about $83,000.

The burger chain, owned by former pro baseball manager Alex Markakis and restaurateur Jimmy Albert, reached the deal with the U.S. Department of Labor over alleged wage-and-hour violations at locations in Biddeford, Westbrook and Scarborough. The reported settlement included $51,775 in back wages and $31,346 in penalties, although a judge still had to approve it.

Investigators said the problems stretched from early 2023 through at least September 2025. The allegations included failure to pay minimum wage, failure to pay overtime, poor recordkeeping and claims that some workers were not paid at all for certain workweeks. Overtime hours were also left out of time records, the case said, a familiar problem in restaurants where managers rely on rushed shift notes, paper logs or habit instead of clean clock-in data.

The child labor findings made the case sharper. The owners admitted violating teen work rules by scheduling minors for more hours than allowed and by requiring them to work later than the law permits. For restaurants that lean on high school workers to cover busy nights, that is not a paperwork issue. It is a direct legal exposure, especially when younger employees are used to fill gaps left by turnover or staffing shortages.

Cowbell has grown into a recognizable Maine chain since opening its first location in Biddeford in 2016. A Lewiston site followed in 2018, then Scarborough in March 2020. The Press Herald has also described the Westbrook restaurant as part of Cowbell’s Rock Row presence, while noting that the Biddeford spot has more of an exposed-brick, barroom feel and Scarborough skews more family-oriented.

The Cowbell settlement fits a broader pattern in Maine restaurants. In 2022, the Labor Department said it recovered $51,217 in restored tips and back wages, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, from an operator of three Cumberland County restaurants that denied 25 workers full overtime wages or kept portions of earned tips. In 2023, the department said it recovered $184,940 in a Freeport case involving unpaid wages, falsified timecards and child labor violations.

For hourly workers, the lesson is plain: payroll errors are not harmless bookkeeping mistakes when they touch minimum wage, overtime or minors. The Labor Department’s Workers Owed Wages system says back wages can be held while the agency tries to locate employees, and if workers remain unlocated for three years the money is sent to the U.S. Treasury. For managers, the case is another warning that accurate timekeeping, legal teen schedules and tight supervision are not optional when every missing minute can become an enforcement case.