Nail salons in New York ordered to pay $2 million in wages to workers who earned less than the minimum wage

A New York state task force has ordered several nail salons in New York to pay workers a total of almost $2 million to compensate for wages that were less than minimum wage or for denying them overtime pay, the New York Daily News reports.

The governor’s move comes a year after an expose in the New York Times revealed widespread abuses of workers in the city’s nail salons. The workers, most of whom are women of color, were sometimes asked to work without pay for the first few weeks on the job, paid less than the $9 minimum wage in some cases, and denied overtime.

Cuomo created the Nail Salon Industry Enforcement Task Force to monitor salons and oversee new requirements, including having to post signs in multiple languages telling workers about their rights. The task force investigated 383 nail salons across the state and found that 143 were in violation.

“New York State is cracking down like never before on the unscrupulous individuals that take advantage of the hardworking people they employ,” Cuomo told the Daily News. “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work is a principle that this state was built upon and this administration is committed to stopping employers who exploit workers and deny them what they are rightfully owed.”