Texas tipped employees: Beware of restaurants stealing your tips
Illegal tip pools and minimum wage violations are such common practices in restaurants that wait staff often find themselves scratching their head, wondering what is wrong with their pay, and knowing something is not right. Wait staff make up a huge percentage of the workforce, but they are at the highest risk of being ripped off by their employers on their paycheck. At the end of a long shift, it’s only fair that you receive your proper tips and wages for a hard day’s work. Learn the truth as a tipped employee If you work for tips then you deserve to know the truth – that employers often short wait staff on their wages or involve them in illegal tip pools that often strip them of nearly their entire pay. The practice is widespread, not only in Texas but nationwide. The good news is that there is something you can do about it. Are you involved in tip pools? If you work as part of wait staff for a restaurant, your employer more than likely has you and your co-workers paying tips into a tip pool, which is then distributed amongst the employees. This is a legal practice, unless your employer uses the tip pool to pay (or tip out) employees who do not customarily receive tips. This includes bussers, kitchen staff, cooks or food expeditors. Once this happens, the entire tip pool becomes invalid. Case in point Wait staff file FLSA lawsuit against five Iron Cactus locations in Texas Our firm recently filed a wage and hour lawsuit against Iron Cactus restaurants in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of wait staff at all Iron Cactus locations and seeks to recover the wait staff's wages we believe are owed by the company for the last three years (February 3, 2009 to the present) under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Iron Cactus unlawfully required servers to contribute to a tip pool that, in part, was distributed to food expeditors ("expos") in violation of the FLSA. The lawsuit also alleges that Iron Cactus unlawfully charged wait staff for broken dishes and glasses.
Since the start of this case our firm has been contacted by several former and current Iron Cactus employees and several of them have already joined the lawsuit by sending us consent forms. One easy way to stop tipped employee wage theft in Texas If you are being shorted on your pay you are likely thinking that there is no way the pay practice at work is legal. If you want to know the answer once and for all, contact our employment lawyers to review your pay stubs. Once you contact us, we can immediately investigate what is happening and if it is legal under teh FLSA. Contact us toll-free at 1-888-449-2068.
The Texas overtime lawyers at Kennedy Hodges represent workers nationwide and across Texas in: Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Pasadena, Laredo, Sugar Land, Lubbock, Illinios, New York, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Columbus, Charlotte, Detroit, and more.
Illegal tip pools and minimum wage violations are such common practices in restaurants that wait staff often find themselves scratching their head, wondering what is wrong with their pay, and knowing something is not right. Wait staff make up a huge percentage of the workforce, but they are at the highest risk of being ripped off by their employers on their paycheck. At the end of a long shift, it’s only fair that you receive your proper tips and wages for a hard day’s work.
