GREENVILLE — Tropical Grille restaurant group has paid out more than $700,000 in back pay and fines after a federal investigation found the Greenville-born chain violated laws governing child labor and wages and tips.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Aug. 24 that it found a string of problems across 13 restaurants: five spots in Greenville and others in Anderson, Clemson, Easley, Greer, Lexington, Mauldin, Simpsonville and Spartanburg.
Tropical Grille was founded in 2010 in Greenville as a healthy, fast-casual option that draws on its founder’s Cuban heritage. It expanded across the Upstate and, for a time, into the Midlands, Charleston and Charlotte before closing those locations…