Employment Law
Are You Owed Additional Compensation as a Tipped Employee? Part 2
Many hardworking men and women in the service industry are unaware that they are owed additional compensation from their employer. As we discussed last section, sometimes this transpires when the employer does not properly apply the tip credit to their employee. In other cases, an invalid tip pool may reduce the employee’s earnings. If you believe you are owed additional compensation, please contact a Tampa wage and hour lawyer.
Examples of Wage and Hour Violations for Tipped Employees
Employers, whether deliberate or not, often undercompensate their tipped employees. The employer may say this resulted from “slow business” or their restrictive “company policies.” It’s important for tipped-employees to understand wage and hour laws so they can recognize whether or not they are being treated fairly by their employer. It’s also important to know if your employer is violating federal wage and hour laws. Here are three examples of those types of incidents.
Employee Fines
If a server’s table walks out on a check this may put the server in a difficult position. The employer may hold them responsible for the incident and deduct the lost compensation from their paycheck. If the deduction is so severe that the employee ends up making under the minimum wage for the week, this is a violation of wage and hour laws. The employee should always be compensated the minimum wage per hour ($8.25 per hour in Florida) for their service.
Not Enough Hourly Compensation
In many cases, an employer will blatantly disregard the federally enforced wage and hour laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and simply not compensate the employee with an hourly wage. They may cite how much the employee is making in tipped compensation as the reason why they are not being compensated. In Florida, tipped employees should earn a minimum wage of at least $5.23 per hour along with their additional compensation through tips that results in at least $8.25 per hour.
Not Enough Tip Compensation
Adversely, in many cases, the employer will pay the tipped employee the minimum wage of $5.23 but not offer any additional compensation to the employee if they fail to receive enough tipped compensation. In other words, if business is slow and a server only waits a few tables in a few hours and receives very little tipped compensation, the employer must compensate the employee additional money to ensure that they are receiving at least $8.25 per hour (in Florida).
If you would like to speak with one of our Tampa wage and hour lawyers, please contact us today.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.