Some people may think that getting paid for a job should be relatively straightforward. In an ideal scenario, it would be as simple as someone getting paid for performing a service. However, many employees experience wage theft because employers do not pay minimum wage, do not account for tips properly or otherwise fail to compensate their workers as necessary.
New York readers may be interested in a class action lawsuit regarding wage violations in another state. Apparently, several restaurants owned by the same chef implemented a service fee in efforts to counterbalance an increase in the state’s minimum wage. The service fee was charged to the restaurants’ guests, but the patrons were not told what the service fee was for. As a result, many patrons believed that the fee went toward the tips for tipped workers.
However, the restaurants kept the fees, which resulted in tipped workers not getting their intended tips. The lawsuit claims that the restaurants misappropriated the tips and that workers, including bartenders, servers, bussers and others, were not properly compensated as a result. The lawsuit recently came to a settlement in which the restaurants will pay $2.4 million to over 1,300 affected workers.
Wage theft can leave many workers struggling. It is vital that employers understand the correct way to compensate their tipped employees to ensure that they are obtaining at least minimum wage. If New York workers believe that their employers have not properly paid their for their services, they may want to look into taking legal action of their own.
