Illegal Restaurant Tip Pools

By Samara Bober | March 21, 2019

Many restaurants operate tip pools where a number employees, such as food runners and bussers, share in server or bartender tips. Tip pools can be legal, but sometimes restaurants illegally include back-of-the-house employees such as cooks, dishwashers, and janitors.  Even bar backs who have insufficient customer interaction may be improperly included in bartender tips.  Some restaurants also illegally allow The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits this type of tip theft, and provides protections for server and bartender tips.  If you…

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Case Alleges Illegal Tip Pool at Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q

By Bober & Bober, P.A. | November 11, 2010 |

A former server at South Florida Barbeque, Inc., doing business as Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q, has filed a case in court seeking to bring a class action for alleged tip theft. Like many restaurants, Sonny’s takes a “tip credit,” and pays its servers $3.02 less than the Florida minimum wage. The server in that case claims Sonny’s maintained an illegal tip pool by using server tips to supplement the wages of non-tipped employees such as dishwashers, salad preparers, and managers…

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