HARVEY – The town of Harvey is one of Illinois' poorest, struggling Chicago suburbs, and local business owners added salt to Harvey's economic wounds by underpaying their employees over $23,000.
The business is the Beggar's Pizza in Harvey, and the owners are State Senator Napoleon Harris (D-Harvey) and his brother. Harris is not only a state senator, he is on the Democrats' March 2016 primary ballot, running for US Senate against Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth and NAACP executive Andrea Zopp.
The Illinois Labor Department officials fined Harris for underpaying dozens of employees of his pizza restaurants, but Harris and the state reached an agreement in court and he will be repaying back wages to 38 employees.
According to the state attorney general, that settlement agreement requires Harris to repay 39 past employees of his pizza parlors a total of $23,032.09, money they were underpaid.
"$3,691 is what he owed me, underpaid me for two years while I worked there," employee Reignald Parha told ABC 7 News. "I was just fed up with him trying to get one over on me so I did some research and I found the State of Illinois Department of Labor and I wrote them a letter."
More on the story at ABC 7
