Restaurants didn’t pay servers anything — so they lived off tips in Florida, feds say
Servers working at four Mexican cuisine restaurants weren’t paid any wages in Florida, a federal investigation found.
They were “forced” to live off of customers’ tips as a result — which is illegal, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The servers were among 93 employees who weren’t properly paid, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, while working at the four restaurants owned by the same person, officials said.
Now the workers have received the money they were owed and have been paid $253,044 in back wages, the Labor Department announced in a Feb. 22 news release. Other employees affected by the labor violations weren’t paid for working overtime.
In November, the restaurants, located in Cocoa beach, Edgewater, Port Orange and South Daytona, were ordered in federal court to pay back the employees, officials said.
McClatchy News contacted an attorney representing the enterprise and the owner for comment on Feb. 24 and didn’t immediately receive a response.
In Florida, employers are supposed to pay tipped employees at least $7.98 an hour, according to the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division. The hourly wage plus tips left by customers must equal at least $11 per hour in the state.
Otherwise, employers are “required to make up the difference,” according to the DOL.
“Federal and state laws prohibit employers from forcing tipped workers to depend on customers’ generosity to make a living,” Wildalí De Jesús, the Wage and Hour Division district director in Orlando, said in a statement.
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Restaurants didn’t pay servers anything — so they lived off tips in Florida, feds say."
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