I am helping a friend and posting here to get them advice.
Theyre not a tipped employee, they make above min wage hourly for retail, but like most places their POS system offers customers to pay a tip on every card purchase; however many people are seemingly kind enough to tip most of the time. Tips are offered in percentiles, so it's always a percentage of the total purchase.
This person was reviewing their paystubs and saw that at the beginning of 2023, the amount of tips on each check was changing from either a strict amount of $100 or $200 per check, to sometimes $0, $50, $60 or $65. It's odd that the tips always add up to one of those three figures, and there has never been a pay period where customers never tip so there should never be a check with $0.
They are told tips from all employees are pooled together and divided evenly, so employees get tip portions from the days they don't work too. Coworkers noticed this discrepancy when they got very very generous tips ($50-$100) and the checks didn't reflect that.
The state is CO, is this allowed? Does it sound like theyre being robbed? I am encouraging an OSHA report as well because apparently the one bathroom at the job place will flood and “break the pipes” if an employee uses it for anything other than liquid if you catch my drift. Theyre not allowed to #2 at work, they must walk across the street to use a public restroom. The tap water is brown, and boss doesn't regularly provide bottled drinking water. Can we do both reports? Will we be required to provide proof? How do we prove it, especially if the employee chooses not to return to work?
Thank you for any advice.