Thirteen Lawrence employers — including restaurants in the Eldridge and Oread hotels — owe back wages totaling more than $112,000 to 130 local workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In 2014, the department began an initiative to enforce fair labor laws in Midwestern college towns and resorts, spokesperson Scott Allen said.

“We physically have people going into the establishments and talking to the employers and employees and requesting pay records and looking at past pay records making sure that these workers are being paid properly,” he said. “We’re trying to alleviate, if you will, the wage gap that’s going on within the hospitality industry.”

The following establishments constitute the department’s “first wave” of investigations in Lawrence, Allen said:

• The Bird Dog Bar (in the Oread hotel), 1200 Oread Ave.

• Ten Restaurant (in the Eldridge Hotel), 701 Massachusetts St.

• El Potro Mexican Café, 3333 Iowa St.

• Marisco’s Restaurant, 4821 W. Sixth St.

• La Parrilla Latin American Cuisine, 724 Massachusetts St.

• Genovese Italian Restaurant, 941 Massachusetts St.

• Paisano’s Ristorante’, 2112 W. 25th St., and its sister restaurant at 4043 S.W. 10th Ave. in Topeka

• Tres Mexicanos Mexican Grill & Cantina, 1800 E. 23rd St.

• King Buffet, 1601 W. 23rd St.

• Henry T’s Bar & Grill, 3520 W. Sixth St.

• The Mad Greek, 907 Massachusetts St.

• Zen Zero, 811 Massachusetts St.

• El Sol Mexican Restaurant, 1520 Wakarusa Drive

Between the restaurants, a total of $112,191 was owed to 130 restaurant and hotel workers, Allen said.

Violations found at Lawrence employers include:

• Paying employees fixed salaries without regard to how many hours they worked, leading to overtime violations when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.

• Failing to combine hours that employees worked at multiple job sites for the same employer, leading to overtime violations when total hours exceeded 40 per week.

• Deducting the cost of uniforms from workers’ pay which reduced workers’ effective hourly wages to below the federal minimum wage.

• Improperly calculating overtime for tipped employees by paying time and one-half the cash wage of $2.13 per hour, rather than basing overtime on the full minimum wage as the law requires.

• Failing to pay for all the hours employees work.

• Requiring servers to work only for tips, and failing to show them on the payroll as employees.

• Failing to maintain accurate records of employees’ wages and hours worked.

So far, the majority of the 14 employers have either paid the back wages in full or have agreed to pay the owed employees, Allen said. They received no penalties for the initial violations, he explained.

“But if we go back into the establishment again and we find repeat violations of the same type, they could face civil money penalties,” he said. Those penalties could “reach into the thousands,” he said.

Department employees will continue to investigate Lawrence employers, making sure they understand and follow the laws, Allen said.

“These are things that the employer absolutely should know about,” he said. “They’re in the business and they should and must understand the wage laws.”

Clarification: In a previous version of this story, the Labor Department counted the second Paisano’s location in Topeka among the Lawrence total.