For reference this is in Texas. This next paragraph is all going to be background about my work situation.
I work as a bartender, but the bar is inside of a corporate office. Only people who work in that corporate office are allowed at the bar. It is still a full bar though. When I applied for the job, the pay was set at $21/hour. This is the ONLY reason I took the job as it is a 40 minute commute but the pay would cover my gas. We do also get tips, but I was told the pay was set so high because people didn't tip often. I have been getting a sizeable amount in tips but I don't know if this is the norm or not as I've only been there about three months. The bar is also a full kitchen and we have a coffee bar too. We are open from about 7am-7pm serving breakfast and lunch and opening the bar in the evening. Also for reference, the bar/restaurant is all run internally. The space used to be owned by a local coffee chain where labor was outsourced, but this changed some time within the past year or so. There is the morning shift from 6am-2pm and there is the evening shift from 11am-7pm. There are supposed to be two people working the morning shift and two people working the evening shift. Right now there are two people working the evening shift (Me F23 and Jess F19) and one person working the morning shift (Nia F26?) but my manager and shift manager are interviewing people to fill that position. Jess and I started at the same time about 3 months ago, and Nia started about 1-2 months ago.
Now for the situation at hand.
Jess and I were called into a meeting today around 2pm-3pm with our manager and shift manager where we were told that we would be getting a $5/hour pay cut, meaning we would be making $16/hour instead of $21/hour. Our manager said that the corporate company we work for did a review of everyone's pay across the company and across locations and they deemed that Jess and I were making too much money (we were told that it was compared to similar positions at different locations, but I have never heard of a restaurant/bar like ours at different corporate locations). We were also told that corporate wanted to get rid of our tips and give us a $5 pay cut, but that our manager fought for us to keep our tips. That was pretty much the extent of the meeting. Immediately after the meeting our manager left for the day and our shift manager stuck around for the rest of the shift. Jess and I obviously had questions and gripes throughout the rest of our shift which we directed to our shift manager. She told us that she has not been a part of any of these meetings with corporate and that she doesn't really know anything about it. One thing that she did know though was that Nia who works the morning shift would not be getting a pay cut. She told us that the justification was that Nia does catering for lunches and that that makes her deserve the $21/hour. This is bullshit because we also do caterings in the evenings.
Here is what I need advice on.
It seems to me like it would/should be illegal for a company to do that significant of a pay cut within such a short amount of time after hiring someone. My own conspiracy is that they are doing this to make Jess and I quit because they don't want to fire us. Jess and I hear quite often through the grapevine that HR really hates the bar. I personally have heard multiple people tell me that HR is trying to convince the higher ups to shut down the bar. Another thing is that Nia works the same position that Jess and I do. The job listings are the same. The job is the same. Are they allowed to only cut Jess's pay and my pay? Is this illegal or is it just shitty management?
Literally any advice is helpful. Even just telling me to get the hell out of there would be welcomed. $16/hour is not worth it for a 40 minute commute when Starbucks hiring pay is $15/hour and it's a 2 minute commute.
TLDR: I have only worked at this bartending job for three months and was told that I was getting a $5 pay cut from $21/hour to $16/hour. One of my coworkers is also getting the pay cut and one of them is not. The coworker not getting the pay cut has only been there for 1-2 months.