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🗞️ Maine Sports Bar Chain Settles With Federal Labor Regulators Over Pay and Child Labor Violations

Three Maine sports bars operating under the Cowbell name agreed to pay $83,211 in back wages and penalties after a federal investigation found overtime and child labor violations affecting 47 workers.

onthelaborfront

onthelaborfront

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🗞️ Maine Sports Bar Chain Settles With Federal Labor Regulators Over Pay and Child Labor Violations

A federal court in Maine has finalized a consent judgment requiring the operators of three Cowbell sports bars and burger restaurants, in Biddeford, Scarborough, and Westbrook, to pay a combined $83,211 in back wages and civil penalties. The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division alleged that the businesses, owned by James Albert and Anthony Markakis, failed to properly pay 47 employees for overtime hours, altered timecards, miscategorized some workers as exempt from overtime, and did not combine hours worked across locations when calculating pay owed. Investigators also found that minor employees at the Westbrook location were scheduled beyond legal hour limits and worked later than permitted under federal child labor rules during the school year.

U.S. District Judge Stacey Neuman entered the order on June 4, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, resolving the government's case without a contested trial. The owners admitted to the violations as part of the settlement. Of the total amount owed, $31,436 reflects civil penalties tied specifically to the child labor findings and to violations the department characterized as willful. The case is one of many enforcement actions the Wage and Hour Division brings each year under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law governing minimum wage, overtime, and youth employment standards, and it follows earlier reporting by the Portland Press Herald on the settlement in the weeks before the federal release.

Context

Wage and child labor violations are a recurring focus of Wage and Hour Division enforcement in the food service industry. In the most recent multi-year compliance push focused on restaurants, the division reported finding violations in roughly 85 percent of the restaurant investigations it conducted in fiscal year 2021, recovering more than $34.7 million in back wages for more than 29,000 workers and assessing $3.2 million in penalties, according to a 2022 Department of Labor news release announcing the initiative's renewal. The allegations in the Cowbell case, including unpaid overtime, altered timecards, and misclassification of employees as exempt, resemble violation types the division has historically flagged most often in the sector.

Civil penalties for child labor violations are calculated under a federal formula that weighs the severity and willfulness of the conduct, up to a statutory maximum of roughly $15,000 per affected minor, according to Department of Labor enforcement guidance. The $31,436 penalty in the Cowbell settlement falls within that range for a case involving two minors. By comparison, a 2024 settlement involving a Kentucky restaurant chain that employed 38 underage workers, including a 13 year old, in violation of federal hour limits, resulted in $250,000 in penalties, illustrating how penalty totals tend to rise with the number of minors affected and the severity of the violations found, according to a Department of Labor release on that case.

Key Points

  • Three locations, Cowbell Biddeford, Cowbell Scarborough, and Cowbell Rock Row in Westbrook, are covered by the order.
  • Total payout: $51,775 in back wages plus $31,436 in civil penalties, roughly $83,000 combined.
  • 47 employees were affected by the wage violations.
  • Alleged violations included unpaid overtime, altered timecards, misclassification of employees as overtime exempt, and failure to combine hours across locations.
  • Minor employees at the Westbrook location were found to have worked more hours, and later hours, than federal law allows during the school year.
  • The civil penalties are attributed to the child labor findings and to violations the department described as willful.
  • The owners, James Albert and Anthony Markakis, admitted to the violations as part of the consent judgment.
  • U.S. District Judge Stacey Neuman entered the order on June 4, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.

Primary Source Author: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (Media Contact: Juan Rodriguez)

Primary Source: Federal court enters consent order requiring 3 Maine sports bars to pay $51K in back wages to 47 employees

Primary Source Link: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20260622

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