Restaurant and paying out tips?

[Vipergrün]

Hello all! Based on some quick research I think I know the answer to my question, but I am also looking for the best way to approach the situation.

Basically, my daughter works at a middle eastern "wrap" place, order at the counter, pick up your food when number is called.

My daughter works the register, busses tables, etc. It's basically her and a couple of cooks.

Money goes into the tip jar and some people put a tip on the credit card receipt.

It appears the owner(s) pocket all of this money and do not pay out to the employees. CA has pretty strict laws on wages, tipping, etc., and I am fairly certain they are breaking laws.

Not sure if I should approach the owner or go to the city/county.

How would you handle this situation?

Thanks!
-Brad

[Zeke]

Ask the owners. If no response, show them the law. Be prepared for your daughter to be looking for another job. Sure, you can make a complaint, maybe even go to court.

Got spare year to spend time on this?

[legion]

She should bust them and get another job. There's basically no scenario under which they will treat the employees better.

[LakeCleElum]

I would start with giving the place bad reviews and calling them out.........Daily.....Post the name and we'll all help.

[wilnj]

I would tell her to find another job. There’s no way this goes well for her.


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[drkshdw]

If they are cash tips there is no record of them. If you try and go to the city, the tip jar will magically disappear. Pretty sure she's SOL on that one.

The CC tips on the other hand, what does her employment contract say? Did she sign anything saying she'd get the tips? The last time I worked in a restaurant we had to sign a paper stating that all tips collected would be shared between waitresses, cooks and owner. If you didn't like it you worked somewhere else.

[seafeye]

I’d leave a review on google and yelp. Saying just that. “Tips do not go to employees”. “Owners pocket tips”. When the business drops 40%. Tips will be distributed evenly.

Btw The Original Tipping Page has some good info.

[vash]

That doesn’t sound right. I would have been fired for emptying the tip jar into my pocket.

[Tobra]

She needs to start looking for a new job. It is not likely the county or state will go after the place.

Post name of the place and have them yelped to death.

[stomachmonkey]

Owner needs to be informed of new legislation.

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180319/BILLS-115SAHR1625-RCP115-66.pdf

“An employer may not keep tips received by its employees for any purposes, including allowing managers, or supervisors to keep any portion of employees’ tips, regardless of whether or not the employer takes a tip credit.” Further, ‘‘Any person who violates section 3(m)(2)(B) shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $1,100 for each such violation... in addition to being liable to the employee or employees affected for all tips unlawfully kept.”

“This amendment to the FLSA makes it clear that tips belong to workers and no one else,” says Patricia Smith, senior counsel at the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and former Obama administration solicitor of labor. “Employers — including managers and supervisors — can never keep tips. If a tip credit is taken, the current Obama-era rule applies, which means tips are property of front of the house employees only.”

“The big win for the restaurant industry is this: restaurants who pay One Fair Wage — the full minimum wage, not the tipped minimum — will be able to share tips with the back of the house employees, with a provision that clearly precludes anyone in a supervisory or managerial role from sharing in that tip pool.”

[icemann427]

Many states do no require restaurants and other establishments where workers receive gratuity to pay the prevailing minimum wage. I hope your daughter isn't being taken advantage of on both sides...

[TimT]

Timely thread,

Just saw a good friend of mine the other day, who is a small business owner, has I think 6 or 7 employees and a part timer or two as needed.... someone reported him to the NYSDOL (Department of Labor), so he is now being investigated for payroll and overtime compliance...

Note that I said someone... here in NY the whistleblower is anonymous, he has an idea who dropped the dime, but obviously the State won't tell him who it was...so now he get the States labor specialist to crawl up his ass and scrutinize his payroll etc..

Oh yea.. my friend has been a business owner for almost 40 years, and has never had issues with the Dept of Labor, until a certain individual started working for him

Point being I imagine California would treat a complaint like this seriously, and anonymously..

[TimT]

Also some ****ty Yelp review never hurt, but how would the person writing the review know the workers are being shorted tips?

[Tervuren]

Around here there are "assumed" taxes based on an assumed tip based on the size of the bill whether a tip is paid or not.

I primarily eat at family based establishments, so this isn't really an issue.

Places split it between everyone there. Everyone is considered responsible to a good experience.

[Zeke]

CA is woefully behind on investigations. It was recently noted that the state unemployment checks contained the recipient's full SS number. The EDD who sends the checks said the computer system is so old that the check format can't be changed for 2 years. I didn't make this up.

File a complaint about a contractor and he's a dozen jobs down the road before they call.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Ask the owners. If no response, show them the law. Be prepared for your daughter to be looking for another job. Sure, you can make a complaint, maybe even go to court.

Got spare year to spend time on this?

+1. My daughter went through this as a food runner. Seems there was a "lead" runner role who collected all the tips and at the end of the week distributed them...sometimes. This person quit a few months back and kept the cash owed to the staff. Strange that a high profile restaurant would allow that sort of thing these days. When I worked as a bartender the waiters would leave envelopes with cash nightly for support folks who left before the tables were closed.

[Vipergrün]

Thank you all for your feedback. My daughter, at 16.5 years old, is very hesitant to engage the owner. I don't want to stereotype, but as you can probably guess by the type of establishment, the owners are cheap, but want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think I'll go in and buy a meal while my daughter is on shift, drop a 5 spot into the tip jar, then mention it to the owner when I confirm she did not receive tips that day.

I don't want to (yet) put her job at jeopardy, but I think the review idea is great :--). I'll re-post the name of the establishment if it comes to that.

[Cajundaddy]

Owner is a shyster and doesn't deserve your daughter as an employee. It sets up a lousy precedent and the experience will negatively affect her view of employers for a long time. Her first job should be honest work for honest pay, not a for a crook who steals from the tip jar. Bad form, move on.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Vipergrün

Thank you all for your feedback. My daughter, at 16.5 years old, is very hesitant to engage the owner. I don't want to stereotype, but as you can probably guess by the type of establishment, the owners are cheap, but want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think I'll go in and buy a meal while my daughter is on shift, drop a 5 spot into the tip jar, then mention it to the owner when I confirm she did not receive tips that day.

I don't want to (yet) put her job at jeopardy, but I think the review idea is great :--). I'll re-post the name of the establishment if it comes to that.

I don't see how the bad review idea is going to help. It doesn't address the problem, just punishes the owner for some unspecified reason. If you give a bad review and state it is because your kid didn't get his/her tips, who's going to care if they like the food?
At 16.5 she can choose to be an activist and fight this or accept it as part of a world where people don't play fair. I'm not sure which way I would go. There are always going to be people who don't play fair and that's a good lesson to learn, but teaching her to stand up for herself has its appeal too. I think the learning moment here is in choosing your battles, and can't say which way she should go. In other words, I'm useless to you.

[cstreit]

THere should be a record of those tips in his financials. Probably not worth it, but if she's willing to look for a new job, you probably have a case....


...and yeah - a few social media reviews about how the owner is stealing tips is in order...