Illegal Deductions Violate Minimum Wage Law

The U.S. Labor Department says Windy City Doc Holding LLC, which owns the Metro Diner's franchises in Jacksonville Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach, made illegal deductions from workers’ pay when it charged servers for their uniforms, which resulted in them earning less than the legally required federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in the weeks that they paid for those items. The practice of sharing the tips of tipped employees at the beaches restaurant with non-tipped workers, such as dishwashers, also contributed to the minimum wage violations for affected servers. The restaurant also calculated overtime incorrectly when it based servers’ overtime rates on time and a half of their direct cash wages, rather than basing it on the full minimum wage, as required. According to Daniel White, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Jacksonville : “Restaurant workers are among the most vulnerable that we see,” “Violations such as those found in this case are all too common. When these workers aren’t paid every penny they have rightfully earned, it harms not just the workers, but their families, and their communities. We will continue our enforcement in this industry, along with our education and outreach activities, to ensure that workers are paid what they’ve earned, and to level the playing field for employers who play by the rules.”

Cheddar's Casual Cafe Plagued by Minimum Wage Lawsuits

Recently, Cheddar's Casual Cafe has been plagued by minimum wage lawsuits brought by current and former servers for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In consolidated lawsuits filed by former employee/servers of Cheddar’s Casual Café in Tampa Florida federal court, it was alleged that the national chain violated the Florida Minimum Wage Act (“FMWA”) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by: (1) failing to pay them for all hours that they worked; (2) improperly utilizing the tip credit; (3) failing to pay them overtime; and (4) improperly engaging in tip pooling. The former employees also alleged that that Cheddar’s Casual Café improperly took a tip credit from their wages for time spent performing related, non-tipped work. The former servers listed various examples of the related, non-tipped work that they were required to do, which they referred to as “side work.” The former employees also alleged that Cheddar’s Casual Café regularly and consistently required them to perform “side work” including restocking supplies, stocking ice, sweeping floors, stocking food/condiments on the expo line, brewing tea and coffee, running food to tables for other servers, wiping down/washing trays, stocking lemonade mix, unclogging drains, cleaning soft perform side work before, during, and after their shifts and that the side work exceeded 20% of the time spent working.

In addition to the side work, the workers alleged that Cheddar’s Casual Café required them to perform tasks belonging to an entirely different category of employment that was unrelated to and not incidental to tipped service. The former employees referred to this type of work as “dual occupation” work, which includes maintenance, cooking, and cleaning. As a result, the former employees contend that Cheddar’s Casual Café owes the full minimum wage (without regard to a tip credit) for the time that they spent performing the dual occupation work.

Following an earlier investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Cheddar’s Casual Cafe Inc. paid $99,168 in back wages and $62,417 in liquidated damages to 268 current and former employees of Cheddar’s restaurants in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Lubbock, Texas, under the terms of a consent judgment. The chain will pay an additional $166,620 in civil money penalties for child labor violations, as well as for willfully and repeatedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and record-keeping provisions.

An investigation led by the Wage and Hour Division’s Dallas District Office found that managers recorded fewer hours in the payroll system than employees actually worked, tipped employees did not take home the required federal minimum wage, and managers did not compensate employees for attendance at mandatory meetings and training.  Cynthia Watson, the Wage and Hour Division's regional administrator in the Southwest, stated: “The Labor Department will hold employers accountable when they do not properly pay their workers and put young employees in danger by allowing them to perform hazardous jobs.”
The consent judgment was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. In addition to requiring back wages and damages, the judgment will enjoin the company from future FLSA violations.

Employees who are covered by the FLSA must receive at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked. In Florida, the current minimum wage is $7.93. Tipped employees must be paid a cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour, and the cash rate when combined with their tips must total at least $7.25 per hour. Additionally, employers must maintain accurate time and payroll records for all workers.

Do you have a claim for unpaid wages against Cheddar's Causal Cafe?

Florida Minimum Wage Act Provides for Personal Liability

The Florida Minimum Wage Act (FMWA) allows a private cause of action against an employer for state-regulated minimum wage and functions analogously to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). This Act is cofiied in Section 448.110 of the Florida Statutes and currently sets Florida’s minimum wage at $7.67 per hour . The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour. As defined by the FLSA, an employer includes "any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee . . . ." 29 U.S.C. § 203(d). An officer of a corporation is deemed an "employer" within the meaning of the FLSA and is personally liable under the FMWA if the officer was either “involved in the day-to-day operation" or had “some direct responsibility for the supervision of the employee." Patel v. Wargo, 803 F.2d 632, 638 (11th Cir. 1986).

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