A Queens construction company shortchanged employees in a kickback scheme that had workers assisting in their own rip-off, city records show.

Optimum Construction Inc. of Long Island City will pay $608,695 in back wages and interest, plus a $91,304 fine for cheating its employees on Parks Department projects under a settlement reached with Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Optimum issued payroll checks at required union-level “prevailing wages,” records say. Workers endorsed the drafts back to Optimum. The company then kept part when it gave cash to its employees.

At the low end, employees earned $500 a week when they should have gotten $2,630, said probers.

Optimum and company President Efstratios Benardis admitted the scam, say documents signed last week. Benardis did not return calls.