Wage and Hour Lawyers for Restaurant Workers

No. Tips belong to the employees who earn them. Managers, owners, and supervisors cannot take a cut, and tip pools cannot include non-tipped staff like cooks or dishwashers.

A tip credit lets an employer pay a lower base wage as long as your tips bring you up to the full minimum wage. If they do not, the employer must pay the difference.

You can pursue unpaid wages and tips, liquidated damages often equal to double the amount owed, and your legal fees, usually with no upfront cost to you.

Yes. Rolling silverware, prep, restocking, and cleanup are paid working time. And if you are paid the lower tipped wage, substantial non-tipped side work can entitle you to the full minimum wage for those hours.

No. A mandatory service charge belongs to the employer unless it is actually distributed to staff. But if the house keeps service charges while calling them tips, or uses them to replace wages, you may have a claim.

Deductions like these are generally illegal when they cut into the minimum wage or your overtime pay, and employers taking the tip credit usually cannot charge them against tipped employees at all.

You still have rights. When an employer keeps poor records, the law lets you prove your hours with reasonable estimates: schedules, texts, POS reports, and your own notes. The record-keeping burden falls on the employer.

No. Retaliation for raising a wage complaint, joining a lawsuit, or talking to a lawyer is illegal, and it creates its own claim for lost wages and damages on top of the original violation.

Federal law generally reaches back two years, or three when the violation was willful. Some state laws reach back further, which is one reason it pays to speak up sooner rather than later.