Apologies for formatting, on mobile.
So the past few months at me and my roommate's job have been quite stressful. All within two months we got our hours cut, new owners took over, and then, our pay got cut. We both work as dishwashers at a restaurant/bar, which may not seem that important, but that's quite far from the truth. As dishwashers, we clean everything for everyone. This includes plenty of other tasks besides dishes. Usually we got done with everything by the time kitchen was done. Our typical shifts would last 6-7hrs on weekdays and 8-9hrs on weekends and we were paid $15/hr. We made just enough each month to pay rent and other necessities.
But in January things started going downhill. The old owner of the place had no idea how to run a restaurant or a bar, let alone a combo. Coworkers constantly complained about him and even claimed he was stealing money from their paychecks(never got proof for it tho). He would also never really come to the bar, but he was always watching the cameras. Due to 'dry January' he had to cut all the dishwashers hours. Fine. Whatever. Business gotta business ig. The old owner wound up cutting our shifts down to 3hr shifts (6pm-9pm), including weekends! So needless to say, chaos ensued because obviously we couldn't do everything in a 3hr timeframe. Cooks and servers would have to dishes after we left because they close at 11pm and 2am on weekends. Other dishes would pile up overnight and just sit in the bins until morning, which is gross and is making more of a mice problem. Other problems obviously also rised, but the owner did not back down kept our hours the same.
Towards the end of January, the old owner sold the place to this other guy (we'll call him John). All staff were told to attend this meeting to announce the new ownership. Except the old owner forgot to mention what the meeting was for and he didn't even tell everyone! Some people only showed up for the meeting on accident because they were showing up for their shift! The other half of the coworkers thought we were all being let go.
But low and behold, we found out we were under new ownership. At first everything seemed fine, John seemed more competent than the old owner and all the coworkers were cautiously optimistic. Boy that didn't last long.
Our hours didn't change. In fact, my hours got reduced more. Some nights, I wouldn't even work for the 3hrs. Me and my roommate's checks were reflecting all these terrible hours. I was worried about not making rent and a plethora of other expenses I have.
Things slowly got worse in February with the new owner for our coworkers. A lot of them wound up losing hours. One of my coworkers used to work 8hr+ shifts 4-5 days a week as a server, but now he barely works 12hrs a week.
Last Saturday, we got paid (our first check working under the new owner) and as I was looking at my check stub, I noticed my hourly wage changed to $14. I know a dollar might not seem like a lot, but on top of losing hours.. I wasn't able to make rent. Luckily my roommates are amazing people and helped me out, but I still feel terrible that they had to do that for me.
After confirming my pay was lowered (by finding two of my most recent check stubs that said my rate was $15), I checked to see if my roommate's pay had been lowered. It was lowered to $14 as well. I messaged the other dishwashers, but neither of theirs was lowered.
Fast forward to tonight while I was working. I knew I had to comfront him about this and get answers. I know him lowering our pay and not notifying us is unfortunately legal (in my state), but I was pretty fed up with all the nonsense. This is basically how my conversation went with John.
Me: Hey, John can I talk to you real quick? (I had to say his name a few times before he finally paid attention)
John: Sure. (not really paying attention and walking away from me)
Me: (I pulled out my check stubs and get in front of him so he stops walking away) I noticed on me and my roommate's recent check that our pay went down by a dollar, and as you can see on these check stubs we're supposed to be making $15. (I pointed at the papers, which clearly backed me up)
John: (pauses for a minute)… Uh, well, I don't have to pay you that much. (Old owner) told me that's how much you we're making and that's what I pay my dishwashers, so-
Me: (I kinda interrupted him here because I was pretty mad) Well (old owner) lied to you because (gestures to check stubs) we were making $15.
John: (frustrated and dismissive) Well, I guess we'll see what happens, but thank you for bringing this to my attention.
From there I went back to my area and I was pretty pissed about that whole conversation. Luckily, my coworkers are nice people and checked up on me. The ones I talked to all agree that it's bs. I had a talk with the manager (who is a very nice person just stuck in a weird position) and he kinda gave excuses as to why John acted the way he did. 'He's just having a sit down with his family he doesn't want to think about work', but I called that out by saying, “you'd think with his family here, it'd make him realize other people also have family they need to take care of.” That got an awkward laugh out of the manager and he sympathized with what was happening.
Later on, he came to me and said he was gonna talk to John about it and see if he can set up some sort of meeting to talk it out. If I'm being honest, I have no idea how or if it's gonna help. I'm just super tired of this place. The coworkers are great/interesting, but I'm definitely not gonna put up with all this bs. Me and my roommate have definitely been job hunting.
TL;DR: In less than two months, me and my roommate's hours got cut, the bar we work at switched ownership, then our pay got cut. Confronted new owner John about pay cut and he says, “Well, I don't have to pay you that much”. Very bad times