• 21
  • January
    2012

In a typical California restaurant there are waitresses, bus boys, hostesses, bar tenders and other staff members. There is a different pay structure for each position based upon the duties and the way the food industry operates. For instance, a hostess does not have the opportunity to earn tips from customers, so they generally get paid a higher base pay than a server or bartender whose income is largely based on the tips patrons customarily leave.

Servers and bartenders are fairly compensated for the lowered base pay by these tips, but what about when they are required to perform jobs that do not require tips? More than 5,500 Applebee's employees brought a wage and hour lawsuit that said they should be paid minimum wage during those "extra, non-tip producing" jobs.

Under federal labor law, there is a "tip credit" exception that allows restauranteurs to pay their servers and bartenders less than minimum wage so long as their tips plus base pay equal at least minimum wage each hour they work. The employees argued that while performing non-tip-producing jobs, they were not being paid at least minimum wage. Applebee's opposed the argument by saying that the jobs were a normal part of the employee's positions which do produce tips.

The case rose through the Missouri court system which agreed with the employees, stating that they should be paid minimum wage for those non-tip-producing jobs if the time spent on those jobs equaled more than 20 percent of their working hours.

Applebee's was upset with the ruling and appealed to the United States Supreme Court. As we have discussed in prior posts, the Supreme Court does not have to hear every case that is petitioned for. In this instance, the Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment thus the ruling holds. If you think that you are being taken advantage of in any way at your workplace, it is important that you discuss your situation with an attorney; you may be eligible for recourse through a class action or individual lawsuit.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "Court Rejects Applebee's Appeal in Pay Suit," Brent Kendall, Jan. 17, 2012