As you could probably infer from the title, I work for a small restaurant. I expected my hourly rate to be lower, as I'm a delivery driver and receive tips. However, a month ago my coworker called me and told me we were being underpaid by 2.85, according to our city's website. The restaurant owner is an ass; he's cocky, egotistical, and has yelled at me too many times- one time for something I literally did not do. The day before this I had forgotten a cheesecake on a delivery and he yelled at me for 2 minutes when I came back, literally until I left the restaurant, wouldn't stop berating me for it and talking about how I'm losing money. When I left he apparently told everyone that he's going to take the cost of food we comp for customers when we make mistakes out of the drivers paychecks- which is illegal. So when my coworker told me we were being underpaid, I was in a mood to screw him over. For a month we've been collecting paystubs and noting any other labor violations. We've been tracking our clock times to the minute as my hours on my pay stubs aren't correct sometimes, tracking our tips, noting every single day we aren't permitted to take more than a half hour lunch break as our only break on an 11 hour shift. (generally this happens on holidays, we are usually permitted to take one 1 hour break- still illegal though). Honestly it's been kind of fun, I feel like I'm actually doing something.
Last night, things kind of slipped out of the bag. The restaurant owner raised the delivery fee from $2 to $4, but the extra money doesn't go to the driver. Two of us have asked him about this and we've gotten vague and DIFFERENT answers. “Something's messed up with the company that made our POS system” “I have a lot of expenses right now.” So my coworker that told me we are being underpaid asked him. Informed him it's illegal to take that much of the delivery fee especially with gas prices right now, and informed him the city's minimum wage. Our other coworker told him there's no way, so he pulled it up. The entire restaurant went quiet. The owner completely ignored everything. So last night my coworker and I filed wage complaints. We are making $10 an hour, we should be making $12.85. He's going to have to pay so many fines and hopefully will have to repay us for our labor. Wish us luck!