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TheRollaDailyNews.com recently reported that 128 current and former servers, kitchen workers, and cashiers will be paid $60,594 in back wages after the U.S. Department of Labor found that 28 Huddle House restaurants were not paying minimum wage or overtime to their employees.
Locations in Georgia, Missouri, and West Virginia were found to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act after it was discovered that the lack of minimum wage was due to an improperly executed tip credit. The cash wage paid by the employer plus the employee tips did not equal or exceed the federal minimum wage for all hours worked. Other tipped employees did not receive a cash wage at all.
Tipped employees were incorrectly required to share their tips with non-tipped employees. Not only is this prohibited under the FLSA, but it also caused the pay of many of the tipped employees to drop below minimum wage.
The restaurant was also faulted for deducting pay for check-cashing fees, breakage losses, and other damages.
Overtime was incorrectly processed, as well; they paid for hours that exceeded 80 hours in two weeks. The franchised restaurants were also found guilty of failing to keep proper records on their employees and the number of hours they worked.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, restaurant employees are entitled to overtime and should be paid one-and-a-half times their hourly wage for their hours worked over 40 in one week, not after 80 hours worked in two weeks.
The minimum wage of $7.25 must also be paid. If the worker is a tipped employee, it is the employer's responsibility to make sure that their tips, plus the tipped-employee hourly wage of $2.13, equals the federal minimum wage. If it does not, the employer must make up the difference. Tips belong to the employee, and are not required to be shared with non-tipped employees, such as cooks or bussers.
If you are a restaurant worker not receiving overtime in Houston, contact the experienced Houston overtime lawyers at Kennedy Hodges for your free copy of The Ten Biggest Mistakes that Can Hurt Your Wage and Overtime Claim. Get your free copy by calling 888.449.2068 today, or by filling out our online form.
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