Three La Panadería Bakery Café businesses in San Antonio violated federal child labor, minimum wage and overtime laws, the U.S. Department of Labor said after reviewing pay practices tied to the bakery group. The findings cover Tequila Almond Croissant, LLC, Pan Dulce, LLC and SA Bakery Co., LLC, which operate as La Panadería.
The labor agency said the case involved a 13-year-old worker and a 15-year-old who was allowed to work overnight, a schedule barred for 14- and 15-year-olds. It also found minimum wage violations tied to two overnight shifts at the La Cantera location on Fiesta Texas Drive, along with overtime errors that left some employees paid straight-time rates instead of time-and-one-half.
That mix of violations is what gives the case its weight. The Department of Labor issued a $25,706 child labor penalty, and La Panadería paid $45,000 in back wages and penalties. That means the business not only faced a federal finding of unlawful pay and scheduling practices, but also put money on the table to resolve them.
The investigation also points to how the problems crossed locations. Workers who moved between bakery sites apparently were not having all of their hours combined for overtime calculations, which can erase the extra pay federal law requires once the total workweek crosses the threshold. In plain terms, the agency was not looking at one bad shift at one counter, but at a system that appears to have affected pay across multiple La Panadería locations in San Antonio.
What the case does not spell out is which three San Antonio shops were reviewed. The public record provided here names the business entities and one La Cantera site, but not the full location list, leaving the simplest question about the investigation still unanswered. For now, the clearest answer is that the violations were broad enough to draw federal penalties, and narrow enough to show exactly how wage and child labor rules can be broken in the same workplace.
