Rancho Chico ordered to pay $750,000 after wage violations, retaliation claim

A federal consent judgment forced Rancho Chico to put $750,000 on the table for 42 workers, a reminder that wage theft in restaurants gets much costlier when owners ignore investigators instead of fixing payroll. The order covers four Washington locations in Spokane, Colville and Omak and came out of a case filed in federal court on March 26, 2026.

The U.S. Department of Labor said investigators found multiple violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act at the restaurants operated by Nolberto Rodríguez and Guillermina Rodríguez through Blanco Inc. and Mi Rancho Chico Inc. Some nonexempt workers were paid on a salary basis for all hours worked, a setup that pushed their earnings below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Other employees were denied overtime premium pay, meaning they did not receive time and one-half for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

The case also involved retaliation claims after an employee filed a wage complaint, along with child labor violations tied to minors operating hazardous equipment. For restaurant staff, those findings track the kinds of payroll and scheduling problems that often show up first on pay stubs, not in public statements: a salaried label attached to an hourly job, missing overtime, and records that do not match the hours actually worked. Andrew Rogers, the Wage and Hour Division administrator, said the company violated federal minimum wage, overtime and anti-retaliation laws.

The judgment came after the Rodríguezes had agreed to pay back wages following the investigation but later failed to do so, prompting the Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington to seek a court order compelling payment. Marc Pilotin, the department’s regional solicitor of labor, said the owners had "shamelessly" broken their promises to make workers whole.

Under the court order, Rancho Chico and the Rodríguez owners must also comply with federal labor law going forward, including paying workers correctly for all hours worked, keeping accurate records and avoiding retaliation against employees who raise wage concerns. For cooks, servers, hosts, dishwashers and shift leads, the case is a blunt warning: payroll shortcuts, bad classifications and broken promises to pay later can turn a restaurant’s back-office problem into a federal enforcement action that reaches every corner of the staff.