A team from the Department of Labor visited 38 factories this summer and found wage violations at nearly half.

Within the foreign-born population, women were at a much greater risk for wage violations than their male counterparts.

She said Family Dollar maintained a hot line that employees could call anonymously to report wage violations.

According to the study, most of the city's more than 165,000 restaurant workers earned less than $20,000 a year and 13 percent reported minimum wage violations.

Some lawsuits accuse even prominent restaurants of minimum wage violations.

He denied that managers retaliated against workers, withheld overtime or committed other wage violations.

The groups call for legislation that would increase penalties for wage violations.

A manager at Nuevo Mexico restaurant denied any wage violations.

"Several lawyers described it as the largest settlement ever for lawsuits over wage violations."

Many immigrant groups voice hopes that the code will become a model for other industries, like laundries and restaurants, where wage violations are prevalent.